>+  p, 


>   FEB  24  1897  "^ 


BX  6495 

.G65 

G67  1896 

Gordon, 

Ernest  Barron, 

1867 

1956. 

Adoniram 

Jud. 

son  Gordon 

ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 


By  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon,  D.D. 


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^  I 


ADONmAM  JUDSON 
GORDON 

WITH  LETTERS  AND  ILLUSTRATIVE  EXTRACTS 
DRAWN  FROM  UNPUBLISHED  OR  UNCOL- 
LECTED SERMONS  AND  ADDRESSES 


BY  HIS  SON 

ERNEST  B.  GORDON 


FLEMING    H.    REVELL    COMPANY 
New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright,  1896,  by 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

CHAP.  I.  A  Study  in  Origins  ii 

New  England,  past  and  present — Dr.  Gordon's  ancestry — Early 
days — Conversion — School  life  in  New  London 

CHAP.  II.  Schools  and  Schoolmasters  '. . . .  .     23 

At  Brown  University — Conditions  of  college  life  in  i860 — In- 
cidents 

CHAP.  III.  The  Young  Minister 34 

Seminary  life  at  Newton  —  Influence  of  Dr.  Hackett — Pastor  of 
the  Jamaica  Plain  Church — Letters — Called  to  Clarendon  Street 
— Criticism  of  Robertson  on  baptism — The  Church  Unity  Society 
examined 

CHAP.  IV.  A  Stony  Field 60 

Difficulties  of  the  Boston  field — The  periodic  season  of  unbelief — 
Unitarian-transcendentalism — Sluggish  religious  life  of  the 
Clarendon  Street  Church 

CHAP.  V.  For  Spiritual  Worship 73 

The  true  aim  of  a  church — Congregational  singing — "  The  Ser- 
vice of  Song" — Extracts  from  sermons  on  the  worship  of  the 
church — The  consummation  of  this  reform 

CHAP.  VI.  Where  the  Roots  Fed 82 

"In  Christ"  published — Private  conferences  for  Bible  study 
— Books  which  had  a  formative  influence  on  Dr.  Gordon's  min- 

5 


6  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

istry— Contact  with  Brethrenism — The  mission  of  this  sect — In 
Europe,  1877 — Estimate  of  preachers  heard  abroad 

CHAP.  VII.  The  Tide  Turns 94 

At  work  with  Uncle  John  Vassar— The  Moody  meetings  of  '77— 
Incidents  of  the  "  inquiry  room"— "A  question  of  casuistry" — 
The  redeemed  men — Communion  reform 

CHAP.  VIII.  Reform  for  Individual  and  State 106 

The  Boston  Industrial  Temporary  Home — An  answer  to  prayer 
—Wendell  Phillips  and  the  drunkard— Crossett  of  North  China- 
Advocacy  of  prohibition — Cooperation  with  Joseph  Cook  in  re- 
form work — The  Prohibition  party — Woman's  cause 

CHAP.  IX.  On  the  Highways 117 

Arrested  for  preaching  on  Boston  Common — The  New  England 
Evangelization  Society — How  to  reach  the  unchurched — Address 
at  Plymouth,  "  Forefathers'  Day" 

CHAP.  X.   The  "  Watchword  " 128 

The  establishment  of  the  "  Watchword" — Its  aim,  scope,  and 
history 

CHAP.  XI.   Truth  and  Counterfeit 133 

Christian  Science — Its  genesis  and  doctrine — Dr.  Gordon's  in- 
dictment of  it — Healing  by  faith — Remarkable  answers  to  prayer 
in  Dr.  Gordon's  experience 

CHAP.  XII.  Among  Students 149 

The  Princeton  College  meetings — Difficulties  met  and  overcome 
—Contact  with  President  McCosh— Work  at  other  colleges 

CHAP.  XIII.  Missions  or  Mammon  ? 158 

The  Congo  Mission  bequeathed  to  the  A.  B.  M.  U.— Dr.  Gor- 
don's fight  against  its  abandonment  —  "  The  cooking-stove  apos- 
tasy " — Address  at  Evangelical  Alliance,  "The  Responsibility 
Growing  out  of  our  Perils  and  Opportunities  " 


CONTENTS  7 


PAGE 


CHAP.  XIV.  "  Seasonably  out  of  Season  " i73 

Northfield  and  its  conferences— Dr.  Gordon's  spiritual  experi- 
ences—Work at  Seabright— Summer  ministries  in  New  Hamp- 
shire  and  on  the  Atlantic 

CHAP.  XV.  A  Character  Sketch 185 

Personal  appearance— Traits  and  characteristics— Work  among 
poor — Home  life 

CHAP.  XVI.   Intermezzo 203 

Dr.  Gordon's  humor— Negroid  and  other  stories— Quaint  ex- 
periences—  Pastoral  incidents 

CHAP.  XVII.  "  Christ  for  the  World  "   222 

The  significance  of  the  modern  missionary  movement— Misap- 
prehensions concerning  it— Dr.  Gordon's  work  for  this  cause— 
The  International  Conference  of  Missions  in  London— The 
Scotch  campaign— Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee, 
A.  B.  M.  U.  —Personal  relations  with  missionaries 

CHAP.  XVIII.  On  the  Conduct  of  Missions 235 

Missionary  administration— On  "witnessing"  as  the  church's 
chief  function— Education  vs.  Evangelization— Government 
grants  to  mission  schools  — Philadelphia  address  on  "  Decen- 
tralization " 

CHAP.  XIX.  As  Making  Many  Rich 251 

The  faith  element  in  missions— The  Clarendon  Street  Church  as 
a  missionary  church— Its  training  in  giving 

CHAP.  XX.  Drilling  the  Recruits 260 

Establishment  of  the  Boston  Missionary  Training-school— Ad- 
ministration on  faith  principles— The  assault  on  the  school— 
Dr.  Gordon's  reply—"  Short-cut  methods  " 

CHAP.  XXI.  The  Preacher  and  the  Pulpit 275 

Dr.  Gordon  as  a  preacher— His  view  of  what  the  pulpit  should 
be  — Power  in  illustration  — Examples 


8  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAP.  XXII.  Errant  Man  and  the  Inerrant  Book 298 

Dr.  Gordon's  theology — The  Bible  and  inspiration — Estimate  of 
human  nature 

CHAP.  XXIII,  Evolution,  or  the  Appearing? 310 

"Progress" — Review  of  Drummond's  "A  City  without  a 
Church" — The  coming  of  Christ — Eschatology — The  Roman 
Antichrist — The  restoration  of  Israel — The  resurrection 

CHAP.  XXIV.  In  Labors  Abundant 330 

Address  before  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  1890— Church  unity — 
Personal  experience  of  faith  healing — Work  in  Chicago,  1890 
and  1893— The  World's  Fair  campaign — Rabinowitz 

CHAP.  XXV.  For  the  Healing  of  the  Nations 340 

Work  among  the  Jews— The  Chinese  mission  at  Clarendon 
Street — Incidents — The  transition  to  a  spiritual  church  life 

CHAP.  XXVI.  A  Sower  Went  forth  to  Sow 355 

Convention  work  in  American  cities— The  convention  of  pre- 
millennial  Baptists  in  Brooklyn— Dr.  Gordon's  address— Teach- 
ing on  the  Holy  Spirit 

CHAP.  XXVII.  Till  the  Day  Dawn 367 

Twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  pastorate— Closing  days— Sickness 
and  death— The  cries  of  bereavement— Funeral  addresses 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A.  J.  Gordon Frontispiece 

Gordon  as  a  Young  Man Facing  page    40 

Dana  Meeting-house,  Exterior  ^ 

(  "  180 

"  "  Interior  ) 

Clarendon  Street  Church "  350 

Last  Resting-place Page  386 


But  thou  wouldst  not  alone 
Be  saved,  my  father,  alone 
Conquer  and  come  to  thy  goal, 
Leaving  the  rest  in  the  wild. 
We  were  weary,  and  we 
Fearful,  and  we  in  our  march 
Fain  to  drop  down  and  to  die. 
Still  thou  turnedst,  and  still 
Gavest  the  weary  thy  hand. 
If,  in  the  paths  of  the  world, 
Stones  may  have  wounded  thy  feet. 
Toil  or  dejection  have  tried 
Thy  spirit,  of  that  we  saw 
Nothing :  to  us  thou  wast  still 
Cheerful  and  helpful  and  firm. 
Therefore  to  thee  it  was  given 
Many  to  save  with  thyself, 
O  faithful  shepherd,  to  come 
Bringing  thy  sheep  in  thy  hand. 

M.  Arnold,  Rugby  Chapel. 


CHAPTER   I 

A    STUDY    IN    ORIGINS 

New  England,  past  and  present— Dr.  Gordon's  ancestry— Early  days- 
Conversion —  School  life  in  New  London 

THE  central  portion  of  New  Hampshire  is  a  land  of  far 
distances  and  blue  outlines,  of  winding  roads,  upland 
pastures,  and  sun-crowned  hills.  Dozens  of  lakes,  small  and 
great,  stretch  their  bared  breasts  to  the  July  sun.  Great  tracts 
of  maple  and  birch  blaze  with  a  fire  of  scarlet,  of  orange,  of 
crimson,  of  yellow,  in  the  shortening  afternoons  of  October, 
Threading  its  way  like  a  stream  of  quicksilver  from  the  high- 
lands in  the  north  through  the  smiling  hill-country,  the  Pemige- 
wasset  carries  seaward  the  contributions  of  unnumbered 
mountain  brooks.  It  is  a  land  of  idyllic  beauty,  with  a  charm 
of  its  own,  half  indefinable— perhaps  the  result  of  the  endlessly 
new  combinations  of  the  simple  elements  of  its  landscape, 
which  no  one  who  rides  over  its  rough  roads  can  fail  to  make. 
A  quiet  country  wrthal,  quite  unhke  the  rest  of  our  great, 
busy,  commercial  land.  Life  here  is  to  the  fevered  and  strenu- 
ous life  of  the  cities  below  as  the  peaceful  mountain  pool  is  to 
the  mill-race  which  drives  ten  thousand  spindles.  For  great 
changes  indeed  have  come  over  the  face  of  the  land  in  the 
course  of  a  third  of  a  century.  Those  subtle  but  omnipotent 
economic  forces  which,  apparently  from  sheer  arbitrariness,  de- 
stroy the  patiently  constructed  foundations  of  generations  of 
industry,  while  rearing  with  superhuman  energy  new  creations 
elsewhere,  have  made  themselves  felt  here.     New  England 


ti  ADONIkAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

farm  life  has  gone  down  before  the  inordinate  competition  of 
the  great  West.  Farms  have  become  pasture,  pasture  has 
grown  into  wilderness,  homesteads  have  disappeared.  Those 
monuments  of  untiring  energy,  the  endless  stone  walls,  are 
themselves  tumbling  apart.  Back  roads  are  closed;  the 
strange  faces  of  Canadian  habitants  are  more  and  more  com- 
mon. The  old  order  is  passing  away.  The  most  encouraging 
indications  of  a  future  in  the  general  decadence  are  the  at- 
tractive villas  of  Boston  and  New  York,  which  are  rising  here 
and  there  in  coigns  of  vantage  wherever  the  outlook  is  unusu- 
ally striking  and  beautiful. 

And  where  are  the  old  occupants  of  these  farms?  What  has 
become  of  the  children  of  these  lovely  hillsides?  Not  a  city 
in  the  land  but  has  representatives  from  their  large  families, 
not  a  State  in  the  Union  but  has  benefited  by  the  reserve  of 
granite  energy  which  they  have  carried  with  them  into  the 
exacting  life  of  the  day.  Grappling  with  other  problems  now, 
— of  finance,  of  justice,  of  legislation, — they  show  the  same 
indomitable  spirit  which  solved  the  humbler  though  equally 
knotty  problem  of  wringing  sustenance  for  a  dozen  little  ones 
from  these  boulder-strewn  fields.  Fifteen  miles  from  the  spot 
where  this  is  written  was  born  that  imperial  man  with  the 
mighty  brow,  under  which  glowed  two  coals  for  eyes — the 
great  commoner,  the  expounder  of  the  Constitution,  Daniel 
Webster.  Fifty-three  miles  away  as  the  crow  flies  stands  the 
little  school-house  on  one  of  whose  benches  the  name  Horace 
Greeley,  cut  with  school-boy's  knife,  is  still  to  be  seen.  Look- 
ing off  from  my  window,  I  can  see  on  a  distant  hill  the  old 
white  homestead  of  the  Magouns,  name  distinguished  in  pul- 
pit, in  counting-house,  in  college  chair.  The  remembrance  of 
venerable  Parson  Morton,  with  his  unfaihng  black  gloves,  is 
still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  old  people  of  the  adjoining  town. 
His  son,  whom  they  recall  as  a  barefoot  lad,  has  become  a 
leading   banker  at    the    metropolis,   a  vice-president  of   the 


A   STUDY  IN  ORIGINS  13 

United  States,  and  much  else.  At  Hillsborough  Bridge  below 
was  born  the  Nestor  of  American  journalism,  Charles  A.  Dana. 
Somewhat  to  the  west  is  the  old  home  of  Austin  Corbin,  the 
wizard  of  speculative  finance.  At  a  distance  farther  south 
stands  the  town  where  John  P.  Hale  first  saw  daylight.  Of 
the  others — the  Miners,  the  Brewsters,  the  Wentworths,  the 
Pillsburys,  the  Colbys — it  is  not  necessary  to  speak.  They 
have  been  worthy  children  of  the  New  Hampshire  soil — strong, 
shrewd,  hard-hitting,  much-enduring  men,  very  like  the  Scotch, 
also  bred  in  rugged  hills  under  a  Calvinist  regime,  and  vitaliz- 
ing the  British  empire,  world  over,  as  these  New  Englanders 
have  vitalized  the  great  Republic. 

The  thoughtful  American  cannot  but  question  whether,  in 
the  new  homes  of  Kansas  and  Dakota,  where  the  black  loam 
of  river-bottoms  furnishes  an  easy  hvelihood,  but  where  there 
can  be  two  elements  only,  sky  and  prairie,  in  the  background 
of  his  mental  pictures,  the  transplanted  New  Englander  will 
not  lose  something  of  the  idealism  and  poetic  sensitiveness 
which  have  been  so  finely  blended  with  the  more  masterful 
elements  of  his  character.  Still  greater  will  be  his  misgivings 
as  to  the  future  of  this  people  in  the  luxurious  homes  which 
they  have  made  for  themselves  in  every  American  city.  Plain 
living  was  the  necessary  condition  of  existence  on  these  rocky 
hillsides.  High  thinking  was  an  almost  equally  necessary  con- 
sequence of  life  in  such  lovely  natural  surroundings.  Can  the 
stock  retain  its  noble  characteristics  under  the  new  conditions? 

Concerning  the  more  remote  ancestry  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  little  is  known.  That  the  blood  of  the  saint  of  Leyden, 
John  Robinson,  coursed  in  his  veins  is  fairly  well  authenti- 
cated. The  Gordons  themselves  were  perhaps  the  flotsam  drift- 
ing to  the  American  coast  from  the  great  wreck  of  their  clan 
at  Culloden.  Yet  wheresoever  they  came  from,  they  were  a 
sturdy  race  with  "  the  thews  of  Anakim,"  performing  great 
feats  with  ax  and  plow.     The  Puritan,  steel  before,  was  now 


14  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

thrice  hardened  by  the  pioneer  experiences  of  wilderness  Hfe. 
Pushing  up  from  Massachusetts,  he  cut  his  roads  far  up  the 
mountain-sides,  as  if  in  scorn  of  rich  intervales,  cleared  away 
the  primeval  forests,  built  his  churches  and  schools,  and  took 
his  properly  accredited  place  on  the  map  of  the  world  like  a 
straightforward,  matter-of-fact  man. 

Old  Levi  Robinson,  Dr.  Gordon's  great-grandfather,  was  a 
man  of  this  rugged  type.  When  hostilities  with  the  mother- 
country  became  imminent,  he  shouldered  his  flint-lock,  and 
tramped  through  wood  and  over  stream,  one  hundred  miles  to 
Boston,  Arriving  too  late  to  take  part  in  the  engagement  at 
Bunker  Hill,  he  served  through  the  remainder  of  the  campaign 
with  Washington.  A  stout-hearted  man  who  beheved  what 
he  believed,  he  iirst  in  the  region  saw  the  cogency  of  the  Bap- 
tist position,  and  on  sight  accepted  it,  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
standing  order,  spite  of  the  odor  of  fanaticism  popularly  sup- 
posed to  cling  about  Anabaptist  notions.  Some  thereare  even  now 
in  his  native  town  who  remember  the  old  man,  in  his  powdered 
wig  and  with  a  huge  silver-topped  stick,  walking  Sunday  morn- 
ings seven  miles  or  more  to  the  distant  church  of  his  persuasion. 

What  traditions  of  piety  there  were  in  this  Puritan  family! 
We  recall  especially  one  old  grandmother,  hid  away  on  a  back 
farm  with  but  two  books,  the  Bible  and  Bunyan,  who  tended 
and  nurtured  a  spiritual  life  fairly  efHorescent  in  its  devotion, 
its  sweetness,  its  humility.  In  extreme  age  interest  in  the 
Lord's  work  never  dimmed.  Often  did  her  grandson,  coming 
back  to  the  old  home  in  the  summer-time,  marvel  at  the  depth, 
the  richness,  the  fulness  of  this  hidden  saint  life.  Often  did 
he  wonder  that,  in  her  obscurity,  she  should  show  such  an  in- 
telligent perception  of  the  truth.  A  prayerful  life  is  as  a  corn 
of  wheat  in  the  ground — sure  to  bring  forth  fruit  in  the  years 
to  come.  Who  shall  say  how  much  the  flower  of  a  later 
noble  and  saintly  career  owed  to  this  hidden,  unobserved,  un- 
obtrusive life,  rooted  and  grounded  in  God? 


A    STUDY  IN  OEIGIjVS  15 

John  Calvin  Gordon,  the  father,  was  a  man  in  whose  char- 
acter our  own  easy-going  age  would  doubtless  find  much 
amusement.  To  the  average  jellyfish,  convinced  of  the  per- 
fection and  completeness  of  the  invertebrate  state,  a  back- 
boned creature  must  seem  little  short  of  a  freak.  A  man  to 
whom  the  doctrine  of  God's  sovereignty  was  even  more  im- 
portant than  a  five-per-cent.  change  in  the  newest  tariff,  would 
be  equally  curious  and  unaccountable  nowadays.  Yet  this 
was  such  a  one,  cast  in  the  mould  of  earlier  days,  whose  whole 
life  was  bound  up  in  the  "  five  points  "  of  the  Genevan  system, 
whom  the  fire-cry  of  "dogma"  never  alarmed,  whose  little 
property  was  spent  in  building  churches  and  providing  for  the 
religious  instruction  of  his  generation.  It  was  a  period  of  doc- 
trinal agitation  on  a  subject  somewhat  obsolete  in  these  days 
of  exegesis — a  subject  which,  as  Froude  says,  has  ever  divided 
men  who  tamper  with  it,  and  will  to  the  end.  The  problems 
of  "  fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute,"  were  then 
the  standards  round  which  battles  were  waged.  The  disagree- 
ment resulting  from  these  discussions  led  to  division  and  the 
formation  from  the  parent  organization  of  a  new  body,  the 
Free  Baptists. 

Deacon  Gordon  went  with  the  hyper-Calvinists.  To  him 
the  very  principle  and  foundation  of  things  was  involved.  He 
often  declared  humorously  that  he  could  tell  an  Arminian 
farmer  by  a  glance  at  his  woodpile,  so  disorderly  and  so  irregu- 
lar were  the  adherents  of  a  disorderly  and  irregular  system  apt 
to  be.  Yet  we  would  not  give  the  impression  that  here  was  a 
wrangling,  disputatious  schoolman  to  whom  controversy  was 
the  breath  of  the  nostril  and  doctrinal  disagreement  meat  and 
drink.  On  the  contrary,  few  men  have  left  behind  them  such 
traditions  of  piety  and  devotion.  The  morning  exercises  of 
the  family  were  held  in  a  corner  room  of  the  old  homestead, 
close  to  the  cross-roads,  where  the  villagers  were  constantly 
passing.   The  recollection  of  Deacon  Gordon's  prayers,  wafted 


1 6  A  DON/RAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

out  of  the  open  windows  into  the  June  air,  are  still  present  in 
the  minds  of  the  older  people,  as  the  aroma  of  long-preserved 
sandalwood.  Nor  did  insistence  on  tenet  interfere  with  the 
weightier  matters  of  practical  Christianity.  Rectitude,  charity, 
self-denying  effort  for  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom,  won 
for  the  rigid  Calvinist  the  affection  of  the  whole  region. 
Strength  and  sweetness  were  here  blended  as  in  the  greatest 
of  New  England  Calvinists,  Jonathan  Edwards.  And  the 
sweetness  was  as  different  from  the  sweetness  of  our  modern 
saccharine,  humanitarian  theology,  as  the  honey  of  Hybla  is 
from  the  candy  of  the  little  corner  store. 

And  of  the  mother  how  shall  we  adequately  speak?  Genius 
for  goodness,  as  pronounced  in  Dr.  Gordon's  character  as  ever 
the  genius  for  music  or  mechanics  in  any,  presupposes  a  good 
mother.  Here  was  a  woman  like  Susannah  Wesley,  self-effac- 
ing in  her  unselfishness,  quaintly  unconscious  of  her  own  sur- 
passing goodness,  and  endowed  with  minor  excellences,  dis- 
cernible daily  in  the  son's  life.  Those  who  were  present  at 
her  funeral  will  not  soon  forget  the  tribute  which  he  paid  to 
the  still  face  wrapped  in  its  death-sleep.  How  full  of  love,  of 
gratitude,  of  longing  reminiscence!  What  references  to  her 
laborious  life,  to  the  unrecorded  sacrifices,  to  the  solicitous 
care  with  which  she  brought  up  her  twelve  children,  to  the 
constant  ministry  among  the  sick  and  needy  of  her  village  ;  for 
if  there  was  want  of  watcher  or  nurse  she  was  ever  ready,  spite 
of  her  large  family,  to  spend  the  night  away  from  home,  ever 
back  at  her  work  in  the  early  morning.  At  the  risk  of  antici- 
pating, we  cannot  refrain  from  reproducing  here  a  letter  writ- 
ten immediately  after  the  son,  in  anguish  of  spirit,  had  laid  the 
mother  away.  It  is  a  breath  from  the  flood-tide  of  blessed 
memories  which  death  alone  awakes,  revives,  gathers  up.  He 
walks  back  from  the  grave  dug  in  a  hillside  white  with  Febru- 
ary drifts  to  the  old  home.  One  hope  alone  can  in  any  degree 
assuage  the  sorrow ;  and  so  he  takes  up  the  New  Testament, 


.-/    STUDY  IN  ORIGINS  17 

and  for  two  days  reads  and  ponders  on  every  passage  referring 
to  the  resurrection. 

"  I  have  spent  two  days  here,"  so  the  letter  goes,  "  much  of 
the  time  alone  in  the  dear  home  where  mother  spent  her  last 
years.  So  far  from  seeming  lonely,  I  should  be  glad  to  spend 
days  there  where  everything  reminds  us  of  the  beloved  one. 
I  have  many  times  gone  into  her  vacant  bedroom  and  knelt 
where  she  so  often  bowed  and  prayed  for  her  children.  Her 
family  was  her  parish ;  to  them  she  ministered,  and  for  them 
she  ceased  not  to  pray  until  the  end.  '  Father,  I  pray  for 
those  that  thou  hast  given  me,  that  they  may  be  with  me 
where  I  am,  and  behold  my  glory.'  All  my  sorrow  for  her  has 
been  turned  into  unspeakable  joy  in  view  of  the  rest  into  which 
she  has  entered." 

It  was  into  this  home  with  its  long  heritage  of  Christian  liv- 
ing that  a  son  was  born  on  the  19th  of  April,  1836.  A  new 
era  was  opening  for  American  Christianity,  a  new  impulse  was 
throbbing  with  springtime  energy  in  its  veins.  The  greatest 
of  modern  missionaries  had  gone  forth,  in  the  spirit  of  Boni- 
face, to  grapple  with  the  forces  of  heathenism  in  their  very 
stronghold.  And  now  the.  story  of  the  heroic  career  in  Bur- 
mah  had  reached  the  homes  of  America.  In  city,  in  hamlet, 
in  distant  farm,  wherever  devout  hearts  were  praying  for  the 
spread  of  Christ's  kingdom,  the  history  of  hardship  and  suffer- 
ing and  faithful  testimony  was  being  rehearsed.  The  tale  of 
the  agony  of  Oung-Pen-La  wrung  the  heart  of  the  New  Hamp- 
shire villager,  and  in  his  admiration  he  determined  to  name  his 
child  after  the  apostle,  Adoniram  Judson.  The  interval  of  key- 
note 'twixt  the  name  of  John  Calvin  Gordon  and  that  of  his 
little  son  marks  in  a  significant  way  the  transition  in  American 
Christianity  from  its  speculative  to  its  practical  and  missionary 
phase.  To  the  new  generation  Christianity  was  to  be  not  so 
much  a  bunch  of  theories  for  debate  and  discussion  as  a  uni- 
versal economy,  a  regime  whose  sway  was  to  extend  over 


1 8  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

all  peoples.  Few  men  entered  more  earnestly,  though  in  a 
humble  way,  into  the  robust  life  of  Calvinistic  Christianity 
than  the  father.  Few  men  have,  under  God,  been  more  active 
and  helpful  in  emphasizing  the  new  purposes  and  revived  mis- 
sion of  the  Christian  church  of  our  century  than  the  son. 

Calvin  Gordon  was  the  owner  of  a  woolen-mill.  Nowa- 
days, in  the  era  of  capitalism,  such  a  statement  would  imply 
the  possession  of  at  least  considerable  wealth.  Not  so  then. 
Mills  were  small,  and  run  usually  by  the  owner  himself  with 
the  help  of  his  family.  The  type  is  now  obsolete.  The  all- 
absorbing  system  of  centralized  production,  with  its  proletariat 
work-people,  its  immeasurable  capital,  its  dreary  history  of 
strike  and  lockout,  has  crushed  the  little  mill  as  completely 
as  the  Dakota  wheat-field  has  crowded  out  the  New  England 
farm.  The  stream  which  supplied  power  to  the  Gordon  mill 
and  to  five  others  now  runs  untroubled  through  the  alders.  It 
has  become  the  sole  property  of  a  wealthy  manufacturer,  who 
uses  it  for  trout  much  as  the  patricians  of  old  Rome  used  the 
lakes  of  Campania  for  carp  and  barbel.  The  plain,  brave  life 
of  New  England  has  vanished ;  the  old  economy,  with  its  rela- 
tively meager  productivity,  but  its  incomparably  better  distri- 
bution of  wealth,  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  coming  socialistic 
synthesis,  if  it  be  no  mirage,  is  at  best  far,  far  distant.  And, 
meantime,  suffering,  want,  class  hatred,  economic  chaos ! 

We  can  easily  imagine  what  life  in  such  a  diminutive  factory 
would  be.  Duties  were  of  course  multifarious.  To  bargain 
with  the  farmer  at  the  door,  who  came  to  exchange  his  year's 
shearing  for  substantial,  long- wearing  cloth;  to  follow  the 
shuttle  back  and  forth  in  its  magical  course ;  to  attend  to  any 
stoppage  in  the  water-wheels ;  to  repair  breaks  in  machinery ; 
to  keep  the  accounts  in  the  little  closet  office— -doubtless  the 
days  were  full  enough.  Commission-agent,  machinist,  ac- 
countant, mill-hand — all  functions  were  centralized  in  one 
man.     Work  then  was  an  education ;  it  is  now  a  form  of 


A    STUDY  IN  ORIGINS  1 9 

slavery.  Then  the  diversity  of  labor  developed  an  ingenuity 
which  has  made  the  New  England  name  proverbial ;  now  the 
machine-like  task,  pursued  ten  hours  daily  throughout  a  life- 
time, of  throwing  a  hand  this  way  or  bending  the  body  the 
other,  ends  usually  in  mental  stupefaction  and  moral  inertia. 
Work  in  the  fields,  too,  was  in  the  spring  season  often  substi- 
tuted for  the  labors  of  the  mill.  Doubtless  the  lad  eagerly 
left  his  ordinary  task  of  washing  greasy  wools  in  the  big  iron 
kettle — a  vessel  that  in  after-years  was  the  treasured  receptacle 
for  flowers  on  the  lawn  of  his  summer  home — for  the  more 
welcome  labor  of  following  the  plow  through  the  fresh-turned 
sod  under  the  skies  of  May.  It  was  in  these  years  too,  doubt- 
less, so  healthfully  varied,  so  full  of  opportunity  for  the  obser- 
vant mind,  that  the  gift  of  comparison  and  illustration  from  the 
common  things  of  hfe  was  developed — a  gift  which  made  the 
discourses  of  later  years  as  instinct  with  naturalness  and  vitality 
as  the  parables  of  the  synoptists  themselves. 

So  passed  the  early  years  in  a  quiet  village  lying  in  the 
trough  of  the  billowy  New  Hampshire  hills,  in  a  home  of  ex- 
ceptional piety,  amid  such  surroundings  as  could  hardly  fail 
to  nurture  a  wholesome,  high-souled,  nature-loving  character. 
When  the  boy  reached  his  fifteenth  year  a  great  change  passed 
across  his  inner  life.  Hitherto  a  thoughtless,  somewhat  in- 
different, unresponsive  lad,  he  now  became  intent  on  new 
things.  New  vistas  opened  out ;  a  new  seriousness  sobered 
him  ;  a  new  thoughtfulness  was  turning  his  attention  to  a  larger 
life  than  that  which  had  to  do  with  fuller's  tub  and  farmer's 
team.  The  weightier  interests  of  the  spiritual  Hfe  began  to  ab- 
sorb his  thoughts.  First  came  the  struggle,  the  wrestling  as  at 
Peniel  till  the  gray  dawn.  The  conviction  of  sin  was  intense, 
unendurable.  A  realization  of  the  corruption  of  the  human 
heart,  a  vision  of  the  perfect  God,  high  and  hfted  up — to  what 
conclusion  could  these  lead  save  that  of  unqualified  unworthi- 
ness,  of  utter  helplessness?    The  conflict  of  soul  darkened  and 


20  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

intensified.  A  whole  night  was  finally  spent  in  such  anguish 
of  spirit  that  the  father  was  obliged  to  sit  with  him  till  day- 
break. Sorrow  endureth  for  the  night,  but  joy  cometh  in  the- 
morning.  Calm  as  the  sunshine  which  flooded  the  hills  the 
next  day  was  that  boy  spirit  which  had  found  peace  with  God 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

On  a  lovely  Sabbath  in  June  he  witnessed,  with  his  two 
sisters,  a  good  confession,  going  down  with  them  in  mystic 
death  into  the  waters  of  the  old  mill-stream,  which  enlarges 
itself  into  a  bit  of  a  lake  above  his  home.  His  conversion  was 
a  new  impulse  in  all  directions.  Books  had  been  an  aversion, 
study  an  almost  penal  discipline.  With  what  avidity  did  he 
now  go  back  to  these  distasteful  tasks  !  For  did  they  not  con- 
stitute the  necessary  preparation  for  a  future,  the  anticipation 
and  hope  of  which  he  was  now  treasuring  in  his  heart? 

This  hope  and  purpose  he  did  not  long  keep  to  himself. 
Shortly  after  his  sixteenth  year  had  opened  he  confessed  before 
the  church  his  determination  to  enter  the  ministry.  One  who 
was  present  has  described  the  scene  to  the  writer.  A  warm 
evening  in  late  spring ;  the  sounds  of  the  wakeful  world  of  the 
lower  creation  coming  in  the  open  doors  and  windows  ;  a  shy, 
awkward  boy,  yet  with  a  light  on  his  face,  announcing,  with 
much  difiiculty  and  stumbling,  his  purpose  to  devote  his  life 
and  best  powers  to  his  Saviour's  work.  "  Judson  is  a  good 
boy,  and  would  make  a  good  minister  if  only  he  had  energy ^^ 
remarked  one  old  deacon  to  the  writer's  informant.  Not  the 
first  person,  forsooth,  to  mistake  noisiness  for  force,  and,  con- 
versely, to  disregard  the  latent  power  which  lies  hid  in  the 
quietest  mill-pond. 

This  decision  made,  the  first  step  to  be  taken  was  prepara- 
tion for  college.  There  was  a  fitting-school  in  the  village,  but 
its  connection  was  with  the  new  and  lax  seceding  party.  The 
boy  was  sent,  therefore,  by  his  stanchly  Calvinist  father  to  a 
trustworthy  denominational  school  at  New  London,  N.  H.    In 


A    STUDY  IN  OR /GINS  2i 

a  suit  of  clothes  made  by  his  mother's  hands  from  cloth  spun 
in  the  old  mill,  (how  reverently  in  after-years  did  he  speak  of 
these  ministrations ! )  he  started  from  home.  A  long  walk  truly, 
thirty-four  miles,  when  one  is  baggage  train  as  well  as  infantry. 
Yet  doubtless  the  bag  in  which  he  carried  his  effects  was  not 
heavily  freighted — a  change  of  clothing,  a  Virgil,  and  an 
algebra  constituting  a  not  unsupposable  inventory  of  its  con- 
tents. The  country,  too,  through  which  he  trudged  is  peculiarly 
beautiful,  past  Cardigan  and  Ragged  mountains,  round  the 
base  of  Kearsarge  and  by  Sunapee  Lake,  into  the  plain  in 
which  the  school  town  is  situated. 

Of  his  life  in  New  London  there  is  very  slight  record.  Foun- 
dations, though  more  essential  than  finials,  are  usually  hid  in  the 
earth  and  forgotten.  Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  little  pre- 
liminary instruction.  The  classes,  therefore,  were  much  in  ad- 
vance of  the  new-comer.  But,  though  the  cabbage  outstrips 
the  oak  in  the  first  months  of  spring,  final  results  are  never 
uncertain.  The  difficulties  were  further  complicated  by  that 
problem  of  self-support  which  so  often  meets  and  vexes  students 
in  American  schools.  Odd  moments,  the  small  change  of  lei- 
sure, were  all  carefully  economized  against  the  day  when  term- 
bills  should  come  due.  On  one  occasion  young  Gordon  took 
the  contract  of  painting  the  exterior  of  the  main  school  build- 
ing, a  structure  four  stories  in  height.  The  whole  spring  recess 
was  spent  in  work  on  corner  boards  and  cases  and  window- 
sashes.  His  room-mate,  a  young  man  with  better  financial 
backing,  generously  assisted  in  the  task  without  pecuniary  re- 
turn. This  copartnership,  begun  on  high  ladders  with  paint- 
pots  and  brushes,  was  resumed  in  a  very  different  sphere  later 
on.  The  two  painters  became  respectively  executive  chairman 
and  corresponding  secretary  of  the  missionary  society  of  the 
Baptist  denomination  in  America,  and  shoulder  to  shoulder 
labored  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world. 

We  have  before  us  a  small  bundle  of  themes  or  essays  in 


2  2  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

fine,  copperplate  handwriting,  much  faded  now,  which  were 
written  in  these  school-boy  days.  Among  them  is  the  text  of 
an  address  before  the  literary  association  of  the  school,  which 
bore  the  pretentiously  classical  name  of  "The  Euphemian 
Society."  It  is  full  of  references  to  the  duties  of  the  hour 
in  the  moral-political  crisis  which  the  slavery  agitation  had 
brought  on.  There  is  much  attempt  at  bravura,  and  a  turgid 
style  which  contrasts  strangely  with  the  calm,  unruffled,  lake- 
like lucidity  of  later  years.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  in 
these  years  the  stagings  going  up  which  were  to  support  the 
delicate,  aerial,  and  yet  geometrically  accurate  exegesis  which 
constituted  so  great  a  charm  in  Dr.  Gordon's  writings  and  ad- 
dresses. In  anticipation  of  future  needs  and  interests,  Greek 
became  immediately  the  subject  of  special  study.  His  old 
teacher  writes: 

"  Greek  he  began  with  me.  He  liked  the  language,  and 
pursued  it  with  a  genuine  zest.  He  seemed  to  realize  that  it 
was  the  tongue  specially  prepared  by  God  as  the  depository 
of  his  highest  spiritual  revelations.  With  this  language  he  was 
specially  to  deal  in  all  his  future  study  and  work.  Hence, 
thoughtful  and  high-purposed  as  he  was,  he  sought  to  know 
it.  He  studied  his  long  and  tedious  lessons  in  the  Greek 
paradigms  as  though  in  pursuit  of  game  which  he  was  bound 
to  round  up.  In  later  years,  when  I  have  noted  in  his  writ- 
ings specially  fine  and  discriminating  renderings  of  difficult 
texts  in  the  New  Testament,  I  have  thought  I  could  detect  an 
apt  and  skilful  use  of  the  principles  of  the  Greek  language  first 
learned  in  New  London." 


CHAPTER   II 

SCHOOLS    AND    SCHOOLMASTERS 

At  Brown  University — Conditions  of  college  life  in  i860 — Incidents 

IN  the  summer  of  '56  the  last  term  of  preparatory-school 
life  closed,  and  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year  Gordon  was 
matriculated  at  Brown  University.  At  one  time  he  had  been 
drawn  to  Dartmouth  College,  the  noble  and  richly  historic 
university  of  his  native  State;  but  various  considerations  led 
him  to  decide  finally  for  the  denominational  school  at  Provi- 
dence. Not  the  least  important  of  these  was  the  prestige  of 
the  great  president,  the  Arnold  of  America,  Francis  Wayland, 
who  had  just  closed  his  career  as  an  educationalist,  but  whose 
fame  and  the  immediate  influence  of  whose  multifarious  labors 
were  still  strongly  felt  in  the  Christian  circles  of  New  England. 
With  consummate  ability  and  sagacity  he  had  anticipated  the 
whole  course  of  university  reform  which  is  fast  making  of 
American  colleges  the  most  elastic,  effective,  comprehensive, 
and  widely  influential  educational  agencies  in  the  world.  In 
his  own  sensible  and  independent  way  he  had  opened  even- 
ing lectures  in  practical  subjects  for  the  artisan  class.  Long 
before  the  days  of  university  extension  hundreds  of  Provi- 
dence jewelers  entered  these  courses  in  metallurgy,  chemistry, 
and  kindred  subjects.  It  was  he  too  who  first  emancipated 
the  American  college  from  the  immemorial  trivium  of  Greek, 
Latin,  and  mathematics.  True,  the  curriculum  was  meager 
enough,  even  after  the  enrichment  in  courses  which  he  brought 

23 


24  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

about,  if  one  compares  it  with  the  vast  a  la  carte  for  '96  of 
Johns  Hopkins  or  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  Yet  there 
were  compensations  which  amply  made  up  for  any  apparent 
poverty  in  instruction.  Emphasis  was  laid  on  training  and  dis- 
cipline. Power  of  assimilation  rather  than  amount  and  variety 
of  acquisition  constituted  the  end  of  education.  The  claims 
of  character,  too,  were  considered,  as  well  as  those  of  scholar- 
ship. 

The  output  of  the  New  England  college  before  the  present 
era  of  expansion  and  specialization  was,  therefore,  wonderfully 
true,  tempered,  and  substantial.  It  was  hand-made,  of  se- 
lected raw  material,  with  the  personal  touch  of  such  masters 
as  Wayland,  Mark  Hopkins,  and  Timothy  Dwight  inefface- 
ably  inwrought.  These  distinctive  qualities,  this  peculiar  tim- 
bre, which  can  be  imparted  only  by  human  contacts,  is  more 
rare  as  universities  become  assimilated  to  the  wholesale,  fac- 
tory tone  of  our  civilization.  The  successful  president  now  is 
the  one  who  secures  the  most  numerous  legacies,  the  most 
sumptuous  dormitories  for  his  college.  He  no  longer  draws 
and  moulds  and  shapes  young  men.  He  no  longer  visits  and 
counsels  and,  if  need  be,  prays  with  them.  He  has  not  the 
sense  of  accountabihty  which  made  the  great  president  of 
Brown  say,  quoting  Arnold,  that  if  he  could  ever  receive  a 
fresh  boy  from  his  father  without  emotion  he  would  think  it 
high  time  to  be  off.     He  is  now  a  mere  executive. 

And  just  as  at  that  time  there  was  no  middle  wall  of  parti- 
tion 'twixt  student  and  authorities,  so  there  had  not  then  arisen 
the  minor  distinctions  of  caste  based  upon  wealth  which  now 
divide  student  from  student.  The  children  of  Midas  had  not 
then  built  unto  themselves  stately  and  luxurious  dwellings  in 
the  precincts  of  intellectualism.  Beck  Hall  and  Vanderbilt 
were  undreamed  of.  Iron  weighed  more  than  gold.  The 
youths  in  tennis  flannels  who  gather  and  smoke  hookahs  in 
these  gorgeous  dormitories  would  have  received  little  recogni- 


SCHOOLS  AND   SCHOOLMASTERS  25 

tion  among  the  sturdy,  self-supporting,  hard-battling  fellows 
from  the  back  farms.  Poverty  was  the  rule,  affluence  was  the 
exception — a  condition  of  things  largely  reversed  in  our  Eastern 
universities.  At  Brown  the  catalogue  summary  of  necessary 
expenses  for  1856  foots  up  to  the  amusingly  insignificant  sum 
of  sixty-seven  dollars.  This  covered  tuition,  room-rent,  lights, 
fuel,  and  minor  expenses.  The  entire  charges  for  a  collegiate 
year,  therefore,  amounted  to  somewhat  less  than  one  fifth  the 
present-day  room-rent  of  a  single  student  in  one  of  the  gilded 
fin-de-siecle  palaces  of  Yale  or  Harvard.  Board,  of  course,  was 
not  included  in  this  estimate.  It  averaged  for  the  poorer  stu- 
dent something  under  two  dollars  a  week.  Students  frequently 
boarded  themselves,  living,  as  did  a  contemporary  of  Gordon's 
at  college  who  became  distinguished  later,  upon  the  extremely 
meager  sum  of  seventy-five  cents  weekly.  As  with  Scotch 
students,  oatmeal  was  in  this  instance  a  staple  in  the  dietary. 
This  inconsiderable  pecuniary  outlay  enabled  hundreds  of 
young  men  who  became  afterward  exceedingly  useful  in  all 
walks  of  life  to  gain  an  education  from  which  nowadays  they 
would  be  debarred  as  by  an  impassable  wall. 

At  best,  even  with  these  favoring  circumstances,  it  was  a 
hard  struggle  for  one  student  in  the  late  fifties.  Assistance 
from  home  he  could  hardly  look  for.  Church  friends  in  Provi- 
dence helped  much ;  yet  at  times  the  exchequer  verged  peril- 
ously upon  bankruptcy.  On  one  occasion,  when  it  seemed 
hardly  possible  to  continue  for  want  of  money,  Gordon  started 
down  Westminster  Street  in  an  aimless  state  of  dejection.  A 
sudden  shower  drove  him  into  a  porch.  Somewhat  later  a 
ragged  and  wayworn  negro  hurried  under  the  same  cover,  and, 
seeing  the  kindly  student  face,  thought  it  an  opportune  time 
to  beg.  He  laid  his  whole  pitiable  case,  with  its  undoubted 
fringe  of  exaggeration  and  extended  commentary,  before  his 
fellow-refugee.  The  latter,  at  the  time  as  impecunious  as 
Walter  the  Penniless  himself,  was  of  course  unable  to  respond. 


26  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

He  explained  his  own  plight,  answering  the  other's  fiction 
with  a  detailed  recital  of  his  own  difficulties.  The  new  ac- 
quaintance listened  with  interest,  and  finally  drew  from  his 
pocket  a  nickel,  which  he  handed  his  anticipated  benefactor 
with  the  remark  that,  after  all,  he  thought  himself  better  off 
than  a  struggling  student. 

Gordon  was  twenty  years  old  when  he  entered  upon  his 
college  course.  As  the  average  age  was  several  years  less, 
there  was  much  that  was  boyish  in  the  character  of  the  lower 
classmen.  The  traditions  of  practical  joking,  now  happily 
almost  wholly  faded  out  of  university  life,  traditions  surviving, 
perhaps,  from  the  wandering  student  life  of  the  middle  ages 
with  the  tenacity  of  nursery  rhymes,  flourished  with  vigor. 
There  were  night-gown  parades  on  hot  summer  evenings. 
There  were  burials  of  hated  text-books  in  the  blue  waters  of 
the  Narragansett,  when  brass  bands  played  solemn  dirges  and 
orators  delivered  Latin  valedictories.  There  was  much  ob- 
noxious hazing  of  freshmen.  Boys  in  the  full  consciousness 
of  second-year  rank  are  apt  to  take  special  delight  in  humili- 
ating those  below  them ;  it  seems  in  some  way  to  accentuate 
their  recent  promotion.  In  the  present  case  their  ardor  was 
doubly  inflamed  by  the  fact  that  the  subject  to  be  treated  was 
a  student  for  the  ministry,  and  possessed,  therefore,  presuma- 
bly, with  a  wholesome  aversion  to  rowdyism  and  nicotine. 

When  a  freshman  of  but  a  few  weeks'  standing,  Gordon  was 
visited  in  his  room,  "  smoked  out,"  and  imperiously  ordered  by 
his  visitors  to  mount  the  table  and  preach  a  sermon.  The 
new-comer's  resources  in  this  line  had  not  been  suspected. 
With  admirable  appositeness  he  chose  as  his  text,  "A  cer- 
tain man  went  down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho,  and  fell 
among  thieves."  Never  was  more  pointed  discourse  delivered. 
Never  was  application  of  subject-matter  to  immediate  circum- 
stances made  more  mercilessly.  The  listeners,  taking  umbrage, 
rushed  like  beasts  of  Ephesus  at  the  speaker,  upset  the  table, 


SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS  27 

and  would  have  treated  him  hardly  indeed  if  his  Christianity 
had  not  passed  forthwith  from  its  didactic  to  its  muscular 
phase,  with  excellent  results.  He  sprang  at  the  ring-leader, 
tore  his  coat  in  halves,  and,  with  the  efficient  cooperation  of 
John  Hay,*  who  just  then  appeared  on  the  scene,  routed  the 
intruders  from  the  premises. 

The  years  in  Brown  were  years  of  diligent  application,  of 
recognizable  progress.  In  pure  scholarship  Gordon  took  but 
medium  rank.  The  inadequacy  of  his  "  fit "  was  as  ball  and 
chain  to  the  runner's  ankle.  Yet  his  native  gifts  were  ac- 
knowledged by  all.  His  reading  at  this  time  was  exten- 
sive and  within  certain  limits  multifarious  in  character.  We 
have  before  us  a  copy  of  Todd's  "Index  Rerum"  close 
packed  with  quotations,  indicating,  as  by  graduated  scale, 
the  quantity  of  illustration  and  reference  which  was  gath- 
ering for  use  in  later  years  like  water  in  a  mountain  pool. 
Carlyle,  as  was  fitting  in  those  days,  occupies  a  prominent 
place  in  its  pages.  Byron,  Coleridge,  Mrs.  Browning,  Ruskin, 
Archbishop  Leighton,  Bunsen,  Edward  Irving,  Pascal,  Richter, 
St.  Augustine,  John  Foster,  and  Tholuck  are  names  that  recur 
again  and  again.  A  love  for  devotional  reading  was  early 
developed.  Thomas  Fuller's  writings  and  the  quaint  "  Religio 
Medici  "  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne  were  favorites  with  the  medi- 
tative young  student.  In  his  regular  work,  special  aptitude 
in  composition  was  noticeable.  A  warm  interest  in  the  clas- 
sics, too,  could  not  be  wanting  in  those  fortunate  enough  to 
read  the  Greek  tragedies  with  Professor  Harkness,  and  the 
Satires  and  Epodes  of  Horace  with  John  E.  Lincoln.  The 
accurate  scholarship,  the  delicate  humor,  the  fine,  discriminat- 
ing literary  sense  of  the  latter  made  him  for  two  generations 
the  especial  favorite  of  young  men.  To  hear  his  "  Bene," 
"  Optime,"  after  an  unusually  felicitous  translation  was  suffi- 

*  Later  known  as  the  private  secretary  and  biographer  of  President 
Lincoln.  >.M-5say«t»-T'«  a-^Sf^t"^ 


28  ADONIRAM  JUDSOX  GORDON 

cient  reward  for  hours  of  night  study.  Here  was  no  "  gerund- 
grinder,"  but  one  to  whom  Latin  was  hterature  and  the  clas- 
sics "humanities."  To  please  "Johnny  Link,"  as  he  was 
endearingly  called,  was  an  indirect  way,  therefore,  of  obtain- 
ing recognition  for  one's  own  scholarship  and  taste,  inasmuch 
as  that  alone  gratified  him  which  was  refined,  subtle,  deUcately 
flavored.  During  Gordon's  second  year  a  prize  was  offered 
for  the  best  Latin  essay.  One  of  his  classmates,  who  had 
unjustly,  though  good-naturedly,  animadverted  upon  his  dili- 
gence as  a  student,  announced  with  boyish  loquacity  and  with 
much  confidence  his  determination  to  capture  the  prize. 
Gordon  with  characteristic  reticence,  coupled  with  a  humor- 
ous resolve  to  defeat  his  confident  friend,  went  to  work,  wrote 
out  his  theme,  and  passed  it  in  to  the  committee.  In  due 
time  it  was  returned  with  the  announcement  of  his  success. 
He  had  appealed  to  Professor  Lincoln's  inordinate  love  of 
Horace  by  importing  into  his  paper  as  many  Horatian  expres- 
sions and  turns  of  thought  as  he  could.  The  flavor  of  the 
Odes,  as  of  old  Chianti,  pleased  the  professor's  palate.  His 
vote  was  cast  decisively  for  the  essayist  who  shared  his  appre- 
ciation for  the  vers  de  societe  of  old  Rome. 

The  severest  test  of  character  is  that  which  considers  the 
every-day  life,  which  scrutinizes  those  close  personal  relations 
involved  in  the  occupancy  of  a  common  room  and  the  daily 
use  of  the  same  student-lamp.  How  well  Gordon  stood  this 
test  the  following  communication  will  show.  The  copartners 
on  the  long  ladders  at  New  London  had  entered  Brown  the 
same  year.  Throughout  the  college  course  they  lived  together 
in  the  third  story  of  old  University  Hall,  the  windows  of  which 
look  out  over  the  elms  of  the  campus  upon  the  city  and  bay 
and  westering  sun  below.  So  long  an  association  is  fruitful 
in  incident.  Many  are  the  stories  of  those  days  which  have 
come  down  to  us  illustrating  the  humor,  the  geniality,  the  bon- 
homie of  Gordon's  character.    These  traits  were  in  later  years, 


SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS  29 

at  least  to  outsiders,  obscured  by  the  gravity  and  preoccu- 
pation which  the  stress  of  great  responsibihties  occasioned. 
In  younger  days  they  had  full  rein.  In  company  he  was 
the  first  called  upon  to  sing.  The  dialogues  and  comedies 
which  he  collaborated  with  his  room-mate  became  a  tradi- 
tion of  the  preparatory  school.  There  is  one  amusing  story 
of  these  days— a  story  we  should  hardly  venture  to  introduce 
if  we  had  not  heard  it  from  the  victim  of  its  point  himself — 
which  reminds  one  of  a  well-known  incident  connected  with 
the  Methodist  leaders  of  the  last  century.  On  one  occasion, 
when  Wesley  and  Whitefield  were  on  their  evangelistic  circuits 
together,  they  retired  for  the  night  to  a  single  room.  White- 
field,  being  very  weary,  tumbled  into  bed  with  scarce  a  prayer. 
Wesley,  equally  tired,  insisted  on  longer  devotions,  but  fell 
asleep  on  his  knees,  much  to  the  amusement  of  Whitefield, 
whom  he  had  chided  for  negligence.  The  latter  made  haste 
to  reheve  as  far  as  possible  Wesley's  mortification  by  summa- 
rily waking  him. 

In  the  present  instance  no  such  mercy  was  shown.  Gor- 
don's room-mate,  impulsive  and  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the 
Lord's  work,  was  somewhat  apt  to  question  the  interest  of 
his  undemonstrative  friend  along  these  hnes.  Being  at  one 
time  greatly  impressed  with  the  need  of  a  rehgious  awakening 
in  college,  he  went  around  inviting  students  to  his  room  for 
concerted  prayer.  On  the  evening  assigned  for  the  meeting 
a  dozen  or  more  students  met  together.  All  were  bent  in 
earnest  supplication.  Some  eight  or  nine  had  taken  part,  and 
the  time  had  come  for  the  organizer  of  the  meeting  himself 
to  pray.  After  a  long  pause,  it  was  perceived,  to  the  great 
enjoyment  of  all,  that  he  had  dropped  asleep.  As  if  by  one 
impulse,  the  rest  arose  and  filed  out  of  the  room.  Gordon 
himself  remained,  put  out  the  lights,  went  to  bed,  and  slept 
soundly  until,  several  hours  later,  the  chill  morning  air  had 
brought  his  room-mate  to  a  full  consciousness  of  the  situation. 


30  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

It  is  in  these  terms,  then,  that  this  companion  of  the  long 
student  years  characterizes  his  old  friend : 

"  I  wish  to  bear  testimony  to  the  majestic  character  and 
exalted  worth  and  influence  of  my  classmate  and  lifelong 
friend.  Dr.  Gordon.  For  six  years  in  academy  and  college — 
a  portion  of  that  time  as  room-mates — we  lived  in  relations 
of  tenderest  intimacy.  The  same  serenity  of  disposition,  the 
same  fine  equipoise  that  has  marked  his  riper  years  was  char- 
acteristic of  his  youth.  I  cannot  recall,  during  all  this  period 
of  uninterrupted  intercourse,  a  single  instance  of  petulance  or 
irritation.  I  cannot  remember  a  single  utterance  from  his  lips 
that  he  might  have  wished  unspoken.  His  religious  hfe  was 
steadfast,  cheerful,  and  uniform,  free  from  short-lived  raptures 
on  the  one  hand,  and  seasons  of  lukewarmness  on  the  other. 
The  unfaltering  purpose  of  declaring  the  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  God,  with  which  his  own  life  had  been  enriched,  dominated 
him  completely,  and  from  this  he  never,  amid  the  ambitions 
and  temptations  of  college  Hfe,  for  one  instant  swerved.  He 
was  a  moral  and  spiritual  leader  in  college,  apparently  without 
the  shghtest  thought  of  being  such,  and  without  any  special 
effort  on  his  part,  just  as  he  has  since  been  in  the  broader 
sphere  of  life.  He  realized  more  perfectly  than  any  man  I 
now  recall  the  high  ideal  of  a  deep,  genuine,  uncompromising 
piety,  without  the  least  trace  of  austerity  or  sanctimoniousness 
or  asceticism.  There  was  in  him  a  delightful  vein  of  humor, 
always,  however,  so  graciously  tempered  that  it  never  de- 
scended, as  is  frequently  the  case,  to  the  level  of  coarseness 
or  levity,  and  was  never  suffered  to  become  an  occasion  of 
wounding  the  feelings  of  the  most  sensitive.  He  was  withal 
so  natural,  so  consistent,  so  magnanimous,  so  charitable,  that 
he  won  the  love  and  admiration  of  all ;  yes,  even  of  those  who 
were  utterly  ignorant  of  or  indifferent  to  the  heavenly  grace 
that  dwelt  so  richly  in  him." 


SCHOOLS  AND   SCHOOLMASTERS  31 

It  was  in  these  years  that  a  new  and  important  tributary 
entered  Gordon's  life.  We  begin  to  find  a  greater  volume  of 
correspondence — letters,  too,  which  reveal  more  precisely  the 
interior  man.  It  is  as  if,  after  a  long,  blank  interim,  a  num- 
ber of  photographs  had  been  taken  in  rapid  succession,  por- 
traying all  the  finer  lines  of  the  heart's  expression.  Acquain- 
tance had  been  formed  with  the  young  woman  who  became 
in  later  years  his  wife  and  the  efficient  helpmate  in  all  his  en- 
terprises. A  quarter-century  after  his  happy  college  years 
had  closed,  he  returned  to  Providence,  a  trustee  now  of  the 
university,  and  went  up  into  the  old  room  which  he  had  occu- 
pied in  the  fifties.  Sitting  there  with  all  the  memories  of  the 
past  flooding  his  mind,  he  wrote  back  to  Boston  this  noble 
letter  to  her  whom  he  always  called  the  most  valued  treasure 
which  he  carried  away  from  the  university  town : 

"  No.  44  University  Hall, 

"  Brown  University,  Providence,  R.  I., 
"  June  21,  i860. 

[Actual  date,  June,  1882.] 
"  Miss  Maria  T.  Hale. 

"  Dear  Friend  :  I  am  sitting  in  my  room  for  a  few  mo- 
ments after  the  commencement  dinner  meditating.  I  just  saw 
you  come  down  Prospect  Street  and  turn  down  College  Street, 
and  I  almost  thought  you  cast  a  glance  upward  to  my  win- 
dow, as  if  to  say,  .  .  .  '  I  would  not  object  to  your  joining 
me  in  a  walk.'  Excuse  my  presumption  in  suggesting  such 
an  idea,  but  you  know  that  I  have  now  and  then  run  down  to 
join  you,  and  you  never  were  greatly  opposed  to  my  doing  so. 
Well,  I  have  just  finished  my  studies  in  this  honored  univer- 
sity, and  from  my  lofty  lookout  in  this  old  ante-Revolutionary 
building  I  am  gazing  into  the  future  and  dreaming  of  what 
it  shall  be.  I  know  you  will  pardon  me  for  repeating  my 
dream,  since  it  is  only  a  dream.    It  seemed  to  me  that  twenty- 


32  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  CORDON 

two  years  had  passed,  and  the  pale-faced,  slender  student  had 
become  a  portly  man  of  forty-six.  He  had  become,  more- 
over, a  minister  of  a  large  city  parish  with  a  wide  field  and 
great  responsibilities.  Through  the  dim  mists  of  futurity  I 
see  his  house  and  his  family.  I  count  his  children — five 
ruddy  and  splendid  children ;  and  a  shadow  in  which  the  out- 
lines of  two  others  are  faintly  descried  sleeping  as  though  they 
were  and  yet  were  not.  And  there  is  the  fair  vision  of  the 
wife ;  I  cannot  name  her  here,  but  she  looks  strangely  hke 
one  whom  I  just  saw  passing.  I  dream  that  people  say  of 
her  that  she  is  wonderfully  efficient,  and  that  a  large  share  of 
her  husband's  success  is  due  to  her;  that  she  has  inspired 
him,  who  used  to  be  rather  slow  and  backward,  with  much  of 
her  energy  and  enthusiasm.  They,  say,  indeed,  that,  between 
his  hold  and  her  push,  the  result  is  a  pretty  strong  team ;  that 
they  are  the  center  of  no  mean  circle  of  activities.  And  I 
dream  that  she  sometimes  interprets  his  natural  reserve  and 
stolidity  and  abstractedness  as  indifference,  and  she  says  that 
he  doesn't  appreciate  her.  Then  his  heart  opens,  and  he  says, 
'  Nay ;  never  man  had  such  a  helpmeet,  and  if  she  bears 
many  burdens  and  does  much  hard  work  for  him,  he  thanks 
her  in  his  heart,  and  prays  that  the  Lord  may  spare  her  for 
many  years  to  walk  by  his  side.'  And  the  thought  became  so 
emphatic  and  the  emotions  so  strong  that  he  repeated  the  last 
words  aloud — walk  by  his  side — and  that  woke  him  up.  Yes ; 
here  I  am  in  the  window  of  44,  looking  down  College  Street, 
and  you  are  just  coming  back  with  a  book  in  your  hand,  from 
the  Athenaeum,  I  suppose.  And  so  I  have  written  it  all  out. 
When  will  you  take  another  of  those  moonlight  walks  out  to- 
ward the  Red  Bridge  and  round  by  the  Friends'  College? 
Excuse  my  boldness ;  for  I  remember  that,  though  you  are 
not  shy,  you  are  often  a  little  offish — well,  no  matter;  when 
shall  we  have  the  walk?  And  do  so  arrange  it,  if  we  go,  that 
your  venerable  father  shall  not  stand  at  the  door  to  welcome 


SCHOOLS  AND   SCHOOLMASTERS  2>t, 

you  in  and  to  wave  me  off  with  that  sweeping  gesture.  But 
then  I  do  not  mean  anything  or  much ;  that  is,  I  don't  mean 
to  mean  more  than  you  would  have  me  mean,  since  you  have 
said  that  we  must  be  no  more  than  friends.     So  good-by  from 

"  Your  esteemed  friend, 

"A.  J.  Gordon." 


CHAPTER   III 


THE    YOUNG    MINISTER 


Seminary  life  at  Newton  —  Influence  of  Dr.  Hackett — Pastor  of  the 
Jamaica  Plain  Church  —  Letters  —  Called  to  Clarendon  Street  — 
Criticism  of  Robertson  on  baptism  —  The  Church  Unity  Society 
examined 

THE  time  for  special  preparation  for  life-work  had  now 
arrived.  In  i860  Gordon  entered  the  theological  school 
at  Newton.  Located  on  a  commanding  hilltop,  the  institution 
buildings  afforded  one  a  view  of  real  beauty.  An  undulating 
country  of  meadow  and  pasture,  not  yet  built  over  with  the 
suburban  villas  of  Boston  merchants,  stretched  in  all  direc- 
tions. The  faint  blue  top  of  Monadnock  could  be  descried  in 
the  north,  while  the  flashing  dome  of  the  state-house  sent  its 
reflection  into  the  west  o'  summer  afternoons. 

Contiguity  to  Boston  brought  the  new-comer  into  new 
chmates  of  opinion.  Speculation  and  the  standing  discussions 
of  New  England  were  in  the  sixties,  however,  brushed  aside 
by  portentous  public  events.  The  nation  was  entering  into 
the  valley  of  darkness.  The  remission  of  sin  which  it  had 
hoped  to  find  in  interminable  compromises  was  to  come  now 
in  the  blood  of  a  thousand  battles.  Walking  into  Boston 
to  browse  among  the  old  book-stores  of  Cornhill,  Gordon  is 
attracted  by  a  vast  crowd  about  the  entrances  to  Tremont 
Temple.  He  asks  the  cause  of  the  gathering,  and  is  told  that 
they  are  mobbing  Phillips  within.  At  another  time  he  goes 
in  to  see  the  immense  night  parade  organized  during  the  first 

34 


THE    YOUNG  MINISTER  35 

Lincoln  campaign.  As  he  stands  at  the  gates  of  the  Com- 
mon, an  unending  stream  of  torches  pours  past  him  over  the 
historic  slopes.  He  can  think  only  of  the  vast  musterings  in 
Milton.  We  find  him  eagerly  reading  Gasparin's  new  book, 
"  The  Struggle  of  Christianity  with  Slavery,"  and  later,  with 
every  one  else  in  the  North,  the  second  series  of  the  "  Bige- 
low  Papers."  The  martyrdom  of  John  Brown  sets  his  cor- 
respondence fairly  ablaze.  This,  after  all,  is  not  strange ;  for 
he  had  been  bred  in  the  strictest  sect  of  the  aboHtionists,  his 
father  of  the  woolen-mill  being  an  antislavery  debater  and 
lecturer  in  the  local  lyceums  of  New  Hampshire ;  while  the 
Providence  home,  whither  most  of  his  letters  are  directed,  had 
from  early  days  been  visited  by  Garrison  and  his  confreres. 
As  the  gloomy  tragedy  deepened,  he  was  led  to  consider  per- 
sonal accountability  in  the  crisis.  Almost  all  of  his  male  rela- 
tives were  at  the  front,  and  he  himself  seriously  meditated 
joining  a  New  Hampshire  regiment.  But  the  family  invest- 
ment had  been  placed  in  his  education,  and  the  family  verdict 
decided  finally  against  the  project. 

Of  the  new  surroundings,  with  their  somewhat  subdued 
atmosphere,  he  speaks  half  jocularly  as  follows : 

"  Newton  is  such  a  contrast  to  college.  I  am  almost  lost 
when  I  go  into  recitations  and  find  such  stillness  and  decorum. 
I  have  never  in  my  life  longed  so  much  for  some  genuine  out- 
burst of  fun,  and  I  am  really  afraid  that  in  an  unguarded 
moment  I  shall  break  over  all  the  proprieties  and  disturb  the 
still  air  with  the  tones  of  some  jolly  college  psalm.  Yet  I 
cannot  but  rejoice  in  the  quiet  of  the  place  and  in  the  advan- 
tages for  study  which  it  affords." 

The  special  advantages  to  which  he  refers  were  larger 
liberty  in  the  use  of  time,  enabling  him  to  rummage  about  in 
libraries,  and  the  companionship  and  direction  of  the  great 
master,  Dr.  Hackett,  in  his  favorite  study,  New  Testament 
exegesis.     We  find  him  more  deeply  immersed  than  ever  in 


36  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

hymnology,  devotional  literature,  and  the  Fathers.  Krumma- 
cher,  "  The  Hymns  of  the  Ages,"  and  A  Kempis  fed  his  spiritual 
life.  Patristic  literatiue  he  searched  to  find,  not  buttresses  for 
ecclesiastical  pretension,  but  fellowship  in  a  common  love 
and  service. 

"  I  have  been  reading,"  he  says,  "  with  a  delight  which  is 
to  me  of  the  very  highest  kind,  the  writings  of  the  old  Fathers. 
Their  quaintness  is  only  equaled  by  their  sweetness.  I  have 
perhaps  a  peculiar  taste  in  this  respect,  and  were  I  to  buy  all 
my  favorite  books,  I  am  sure  my  library  would  be  of  quite 
an  antique  cast.  St.  Augustine's  '  Confessions '  afford  delinea- 
tions of  almost  seraphic  raptures.  They  give  one  an  idea  of 
what  Christianity  is  able  to  impart  to  him  who  is  willing  to 
bear  its  sternest  self-denials.  ...  I  feel,  with  him,  what  we 
most  of  all  need  is  the  power  to  commune  with  God.  I  know 
of  no  greater  attainment  than  the  ability  to  hold  unbroken 
communion  with  the  Saviour,  closing  up  those  avenues  through 
which  sinful  thoughts  and  vain  desires  steal  in,  and,  as  A 
Kempis  says,  making  of  the  soul  a  tabernacle  with  but  one 
window,  and  that  for  Christ." 

Of  those  other  Fathers,  the  Fathers  of  Reformed  Christianity, 
he  made  fast  friends.  Rutherford's  "  Letters  "  were  discovered 
in  an  old  issue  of  1826,  uncut  and  thick  with  dust.  Its  jew- 
els of  meditation  and  ecstasy  were  gathered  with  eager  hands. 
This  volume  held  him  throughout  life  with  the  charm  of  an 
abiding  fascination.  Reference  is  made  again  and  again,  in 
his  Newton  letters,  to  "  sweet  Rutherford."  And  with  these 
references,  in  a  contrast  which  is  almost  grotesque  in  its  ex- 
treme remove,  are  coupled  appreciative  allusions  to  contem- 
porary humorists : 

"  I  wish  Artemus  Ward  would  bring  out  something  new. 
What  should  we  do  without  those  benefactors  of  the  human 
race,  the  humorists?  Wouldn't  society  stagnate?  Wouldn't 
sanctimoniousness  become  soon  the  presiding  genius  where 


THE    YOUXG  MINISTER  37 

now  only  a  decent  gravity  and  a  moderate  decorum  reign? 
I  see  an  advantage  in  trying  to  weave  a  little  of  this  element 
into  the  texture  of  my  clerical  web  that  is  now  making." 

The  influence  of  the  great  teacher,  Hackett,  that  extraordi- 
narily erudite  rabbi,  with  his  little,  shrunk  frame,  mobile  face, 
and  spectacled  eyes,  was  the  most  important  of  those  years. 
With  him  were  made  those  laboratory  studies  in  Greek,  as  ex- 
acting and  as  scientific  as  if  the  two  were  scrutinizing  a  tissue 
or  a  cell  with  the  most  powerful  Zeiss  microscope.  It  was 
said  of  Hackett  that  "  he  never  went  into  his  class,  during  the 
whole  forty  years  of  his  career  as  a  teacher,  without  a  new  in- 
vestigation and  revision  of  the  lesson  for  the  hour,"  and  "  that 
no  man  has  lived,  in  America  at  least,  who  has  been  able  to 
impress  the  most  minute  and  recondite  indications  of  the 
Greek  original  upon  the  minds  of  New  Testament  students." 
From  him  Gordon  learned  that  "  every  phrase  of  the  New 
Testament  has  a  meaning  definite  and  single — a  meaning  that 
can  be  accurately  ascertained  and  clearly  expressed  according 
to  fixed  and  settled  laws  of  human  speech."  From  him  he 
got  "  that  reverent  regard  for  divine  revelation  which,  on  the 
one  hand,  brooks  no  mystical  importation  of  human  fancies 
into  the  sacred  text,  and,  on  the  other,  does  not  permit  the 
smallest  Greek  article  or  conjunction  to  be  treated  as  an  idle 
or  ambiguous  thing  in  that  Word,  which  holy  men  of  old 
\vrote  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  * 

The  years  at  Newton  passed  smoothly.  Gordon  writes 
frequently  of  visits  to  Providence—"  visits,"  as  he  said,  "  which 
form  pleasant  little  inns  for  hope  and  anticipation  to  rest  them- 
selves in  as  they  journey  out  into  the  future."  The  letters 
which  he  sent  to  the  same  home,  like  faded  rose-leaves  long 
kept,  full  of  suggestions  of  hfe  and  color,  exhale  an  aroma  of 
contentment  and  gratitude. 

*  Memorial  Address  by  Dr.  A.  H.  Strong  on  Horatio  Balch  Hackett, 
D.D. 


38  ADOXIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Health  was  returning.  "  I  am  better  than  for  a  long  time," 
he  writes.  "  Trials  are  good,  but  I  sometimes  think  happiness 
makes  me  more  religious  even  than  grief.  I  know  I  never  felt 
more  devoutly  thankful  for  blessings  which  seem  clearly  to 
have  come  from  God."  And  again :  "  I  have  concluded  to 
avoid  brooding  over  any  anxieties.  I  have  learned  to  believe 
it  wrong.  It  is  gathering  and  pressing  together  into  an  intol- 
erable burden  the  troubles  which  God  has  mercifully  scattered 
over  years  of  time.  I  confess  I  cannot  see  so  far  and  so  dis- 
tinctly the  path  of  my  future  life  as  I  was  confident  I  could  in 
boyhood,  before  I  thought  of  the  possibility  of  such  a  thing 
as  adversity  or  disappointment.  Still  when  I  have  taken  one 
step  I  have  always  had  light  enough  to  see  where  to  take  the 
next.  So  I  try  quietly  to  adopt  the  words  of  Christ,  '  Take 
no  thought  for  the  morrow.'  '  Do  the  duty  that  lies  nearest 
to  thee '  has  become  quite  a  motto  for  me.  We  need  to  be 
patient  above  all  things.  I  am  anxious,  too,  that  you  as  well 
as  myself  may  learn  that  generous  and  self-denying  labors  for 
others  bring  the  sweetest  and  richest  rewards.  The  smallest 
action  may  thus  be  made  noble,  and  the  very  drudgery  of  life 
become  divine.  I  sometimes  hope  that  it  is  one  of  the  lessons 
which  experience  is  gradually  teaching  me,  that  if  I  am  to  be 
anything  that  is  truly  good  and  noble,  it  must  be  by  conquer- 
ing those  narrow  and  sordid  ambitions  by  which  the  world  is 
so  much  controlled.    Still  I  am  aware  I  have  enough  of  them." 

To  those  three  too  frequent  intruders  into  the  contemporary 
pulpit,  a  metaphysical  jargon,  a  shallow  Pelagianism,  and  a 
uniformed  officialism,  he  makes  references  in  different  letters. 
Going  into  Boston,  he  strays  into  church,  and  hstens  to  the 
philosophical  essay  of  a  distinguished  pulpiteer.  He  remarks 
that  it  is  "too  full  of  scholastic  terms  and  metaphysical  tech- 
nicalities, which  are  even  more  objectionable  than  cant  and 
slang;  for  ordinary  people  can  comprehend  the  latter,  but 
very  rarely  the  former " ;   adding  confidentially  to  the  pro- 


THE   YOUiXG  MINISTER  39 

spective  minister's  wife,  "  which  would  you  rather  have  me 
use  ?  " 

On  the  receipt  of  a  hand-wrought  sermon-case  from  the 
same  intimate  correspondent,  he  says,  mingling  theology  and 
love-making  in  a  way  not  necessary  to  divulge  here : 

"  I  will  try  to  do  as  you  request,  and  write  some  good  ser- 
mons for  it,  practical  because  spiritual.  There  is  nothing  prac- 
tical in  religion  hit  the  spiritual.  I  feel  that  I  must  not  dis- 
guise the  fact  that  men  are  sinners,  though  that  may  seem  to 
be  an  antiquated  idea  and  an  exploded  theory  of  Jonathan 
Edwards.  If  they  are  as  much  so  as  I  am,  I  am  quite  safe  in 
making  the  statement." 

The  next  extract  repels  the  bantering  imputation  of  clerical- 
ism with  some  heat : 

"  There  is  one  thing  about  which  I  am  going  to  remonstrate 
with  you.  I  don't  wish  you  to  use  the  term  '  white  cravat ' 
in  any  way  to  me.  It  is  no  more  a  symbol  of  the  ministry 
than  a  bald  head  or  a  sore  finger.  It  is  worn,  I  know,  but 
generally  by  the  men  who  need  something  to  bring  them  up 
to  the  standard  of  a  decent  debility." 

The  seminarist  was  now  beginning  to  preach  in  small  country 
and  suburban  churches — entering  upon  a  sort  of  pastoral  clinic 
introductory  to  his  coming  career.  He  had  preached  occasion- 
ally in  the  church  of  his  own  village.  Often  in  later  years  did  he 
describe  that  first  placid  morning  when  with  fluttering  heart  he 
stood  up  before  a  full  congregation  of  critically  curious  neigh- 
bors and  relatives.  His  own  two  grandmothers,  impartial  and 
rigid  as  two  Norns  stepped  out  of  an  Icelandic  saga,  occupied 
the  front  seat,  to  pass  judgment  upon  his  orthodoxy.  When 
asked  after  service  as  to  their  opinion,  the  one  kept  ominous 
silence  ;  the  other  retorted  that  she  "  had  known  it  all  before." 
But  such  unresponsiveness  must,  after  all,  have  been  the  child 
of  an  honest  family  pride  that  refused  to  betray  itself  from 
very  self-consciousness ;  for  everywhere  else  he  was  received 


40  ADONIRAAI  JUDSON  GORDON 

with  kindly  appreciation,  though  with  popular  expressions  of 
surprise    at   his    apparently    extreme    youth.     "The    people, 

D tells  me,  were  quite  astonished  to  see  such  a  boy  in 

the  pulpit,  and  made  various  conjectures  about  his  age,  none 
of  them  going  above  seventeen  or  eighteen.  In  passing  down 
the  middle  aisle  to-day  after  meeting,  I  was  accosted  by  an 
estimable,  near-sighted  lady,  who  was  apparently  considering 
the  current  opinion  as  to  my  age,  with  the  somewhat  confus- 
ing question,  '  Do  you  suppose  that  that  young  man  really 
wrote  the  sermon  himself?  '  " 

The  Sundays  were  spent  in  this  way  among  the  various 
churches  of  eastern  Massachusetts.  Now  and  again  he  felt 
disheartened.  "  There  seems  to  be  so  little  real  appreciation 
of  what  has  cost  so  much  toil  of  brain,  and  so  little  apparent 
good  from  the  words  spoken."  At  other  times  he  was  greatly 
encouraged.  One  day,  just  previous  to  his  graduation,  a  let- 
ter was  received  from  the  Baptist  society  in  Jamaica  Plain, 
asking  the  young  minister  to  "  supply  "  the  pulpit  there.  The 
gentle,  open  face  and  thoughtful  sermon  won  the  hearts  of  all  ; 
at  the  month's  end  he  was  "  called." 

On  the  evening  of  the  12th  of  June,  1863,  the  Httle  church 
was  hung  with  greenery,  and  the  people  were  assembled  for 
the  ordination  service.  We  have  before  us  the  faded  printed 
"  Program  for  the  Installation  of  Mr.  Adoniram  Judson 
Gordon  as  Pastor  of  the  Jamaica  Plain  Church,  West  Rox- 
bury."  There  was  the  usual  formal  sermon,  the  charge,  the 
blessing  by  the  older  ministers  present.  Then  all  united  in 
the  familiar,  fervent  hymn  : 

"  Gird  thou  his  heart  with  strength  divine; 
Let  Christ  through  all  his  conduct  shine; 
Faithful  in  all  things  may  he  be, 
Dead  to  the  world,  alive  to  thee," 

and  the  simple  exercises  were  over. 

The  village  of  Jamaica  Plain  was  at  that  time  perhaps  the 


THE    YOUNG  MINISTER  4 1 

most  delightful  spot  in  the  outskirts  of  Boston.  It  was  a 
suburb  of  close-shaven  lawns,  well  besprinkled,  across  which 
querulous  robins  ran,  and  over  whose  walks  spirea,  flaming 
rhododendrons,  and  gorgeous,  golden  forsythia  hung  in  profu- 
sion. Bending  elms  and  thick-fohaged  chestnut-trees  lined 
the  roads.  Pleasant  homes,  deep  bedded  in  shrubbery,  and 
filled  with  books  and  all  the  comforts  of  an  ample,  affluent  life, 
welcomed  the  new  pastor  in  his  round  of  calls.  His  own 
house  stood  just  at  the  edge  of  a  sedate  little  pond,  not  far 
from  the  place  where  the  heroic  Parkman,  batthng  with  dis- 
ease, raised  incomparable  roses  and  wrote  incomparable  his- 
tories. The  church  where  Theodore  Parker  preached  lay  off 
a  mile  or  two  in  West  Roxbury,  and  in  the  same  direction  the 
undulating  meadows  of  Brook  Farm,  long  since  deserted  of 
its  ideahst  and  book-writing  tenantry,  stretched  their  grassy 
slopes  under  the  sun.  Altogether  the  new  surroundings  were 
well  suited  to  a  man  of  quiet  tastes.  His  marriage,  which 
occurred  soon  after  his  settlement  at  the  Plain,  heightened 
the  joy  of  the  new  home.  And  with  all  these  circumstances 
contributing  to  his  happiness,  there  went  along  a  deep  grati- 
tude to  God  for  his  mercies— a  gratitude  reflected  in  the  letters 
written  to  his  wife  when  he  was  called  away  from  his  own 
church  to  speak.  In  the  note  from  which  the  following  is 
taken,  after  dwelling  on  his  recent  marriage  he  says : 

"  But  I  look  back  on  the  time  when  I  first  realized  that  we 
were  one  in  Christ,  and  a  higher  gratitude  fills  my  heart  for 
that.     Dear  wife,  I  wonder  now,  when  the  thought  of  our  life       / 
in  Christ  so  fills  my  soul,  that  we  do  not  talk  more  about  it.       1 
Oh,  what  is  it  to  be  joined  together  in  the  Lord,  to  be  the 
privileged  guests  of  the  constant  bridal  of  the  Lamb?     My 
heart  is  filled  with  love  to  Jesus  while  I  write.     '  Whom  have       \ 
I  in  heaven  but  him,  and  there  is  none  on  the  earth  that  I 
desire  beside  him.'     I  want  to  go  everywhere  trying  to  per- 
suade men  to  be  reconciled  to  God  through  him." 


42  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

And  again : 

"  I  sometimes  fear  that  my  perfect  happiness  and  content- 
ment in  my  home,  and  my  complete  earthly  bliss  with  my 
wife,  may  lead  me  to  forget  God.  Let  us  make  it  a  special 
subject  of  prayer  that  God  may  keep  us  from  forgetting  him 
or  neglecting  our  duty  to  him.  And  when  you  come  back  to 
me,  may  I  find  you  with  a  heart  not  only  glowing  with  a  love 
for  me,  but  kindled  with  a  more  intense  devotion  to  our  dear 
Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Christ.  How  I  thank  God  that  you 
love  him  with  me!  and  I  do  believe  that  even  in  heaven  I  shall 
rejoice  that  these  hands  were  permitted  to  bury  you  in  death 
with  him  by  baptism,  and  raise  you  up  in  the  likeness  of  his 
resurrection.     Bless  the  Lord." 

We  get  an  idea  of  the  young  minister's  personal  appearance 
from  a  portrait  painted  about  this  time.  It  shows  us  a  wealth 
of  chestnut  hair  brushed  across  a  high  forehead,  grave  though 
kindly  eyes  of  an  indeterminate  blue-gray  shade,  spare  cheeks, 
a  full  under  lip  suggestive  of  meditative  moods,  and  a  mouth 
mobile  and  genial,  ready  at  any  moment  for  harmless  pleasan- 
try, with  jaws  behind  it  locked  in  the  decision  of  strongly  held 
convictions.  His  height  was  above  the  medium.  The  years 
of  study,  however,  had  left  him  with  a  frame  somewhat  scant- 
ily clothed  upon,  which  contrasted  markedly  with  the  massive 
mould  of  after-years.  His  voice  was  full,  rich,  flexible,  yet  a 
little  roughened,  they  said,  as  a  Cremona  violin  before  it  at- 
tains the  mellow  timbre  of  maturity.  The  old  sexton  of  the 
Jamaica  Plain  Church  still  recalls  him  walking  to  and  fro  in 
the  church  vestry  week-days  persistently  working  to  overcome 
this  defect.  In  manner  he  was  shy  and  reserved,  though  de- 
lightfully genial  when  once  the  restraints  of  new  acquaintance 
were  well  melted.  The  social  duties  of  a  pastor— calling,  giv- 
ing in  marriage,  and  the  like— demanded  an  expenditure  of 
real  effort,  and  were  the  source  of  much  misgiving.  We  get 
a  ghmpse  of  this  in  the  following  letter : 


THE   YOUNG  MINISTER  43 

"  I  have  just  been  interrupted   by  another  couple  to  be 

married.     One  of  the  parties  was  Miss  R .     It  is  painful 

to  stand  in  the  presence  of  such  a  modest,  shrinking  couple 
with  no  possibility  of  getting  up  a  conversation.  I  greatly 
wished  you  had  been  here  to  speak  your  piece  beginning,  '  I 
trust  you  may  be  as  happy  in  your  married  life  as  I,'  etc.  I 
really  missed  it,  and  was  so  embarrassed  after  I  got  through 
the  service  in  thinking  to  myself,  '  Well,  there  is  something  I 
have  forgotten ;  I  am  sure  it  does  not  seem  quite  complete.' 
I  couldn't  for  the  life  of  me  think  what  it  was  till  they  had 
gone ;  then  it  flashed  upon  my  mind,  '  Why,  it's  my  wife's 
speech! ' " 

If  timid  in  the  parlor,  he  was  certainly  not  so  in  the  pulpit. 
In  an  address  given  at  this  time,  he  reproaches  "  those  minis- 
ters who  start  with  ghostly  horror  at  the  thought  of  taking 
weapons  against  the  iniquities  which  infest  our  land,  who  re- 
fuse to  speak  out  against  such  sins  as  slavery  and  corruption 
in  high  places,  but,  with  wonderful  dexterity  of  conscience, 
dodge  behind  the  shadow  of  what  they  call  the  dignity  of  the 
pulpit,  and  spend  their  days  writing  metaphysical  disquisitions 
on  long-forgotten  theological  jangles."  He  did  not  hesitate 
then  more  than  in  later  life  to  "preach  politics"  when  "poli- 
tics" was  but  the  synonym  for  righteousness.  In  the  dark 
days  of  '63  his  voice  rang  out  constantly  and  unequivocally 
in  behalf  of  freedom  and  the  Union,  much  to  the  disgust  of 
many  of  his  lukewarm  parishioners.  On  a  certain  occasion, 
during  the  climax  of  one  of  these  appeals,  a  "  leading  mem- 
ber "  rose  up  in  the  body  of  the  house,  drew  forth,  with  utmost 
deliberation,  hymn-book,  Psalter,  and  Testament  from  the  rack 
in  his  pew,  placed  them  resolutely  under  both  armpits,  and 
marched  slowly  down  the  main  aisle  and  out  of  the  church. 
Thus  did  he  shake  the  dust  from  off  his  feet  as  a  witness 
against  this  infamous  commingling  of  the  sacred  with  the 
secular,  of  the  things  of  the  Bible  with  those  of  the  newspaper. 


44  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Never  afterward  was  he  seen  in  the  church.  Years  passed ; 
Gordon  had  long  since  left  the  scene  of  his  early  ministry,  and 
was  settled  over  his  Boston  charge ;  the  solitary  secession  of 
that  Sabbath  morning  was  completely  forgotten.  One  day  he 
received  a  note  asking  him  to  attend  a  funeral  in  the  suburbs. 
Street  and  number  alone  were  given.  On  entering  the  house 
he  was  surprised  to  learn  that  the  dead  man  was  the  stiff 
dissenter  of  war  times.  He  had  insisted  on  his  death-bed 
that  none  other  should  conduct  his  funeral  exercises  than  the 
young  pastor  of  former  days,  "who  never  feared  to  preach 
what  he  believed." 

As  a  pastor,  Gordon's  relations  with  his  people  were  most 
familiar,  tender,  intime.  Formality  had  here  no  place.  He 
was  wont  to  gather  his  little  flock  around  him  in  the  Friday 
evening  prayer-meetings,  conferring,  instructing,  opening  the 
Word,  encouraging  all  in  "  the  practice  of  the  presence  of 
God,"  and  in  the  conflict  with  the  temptations  incident  to  the 
daily  walk.  The  second  year  he  preached  a  series  of  sermons 
on  the  development  of  the  higher  life,  which  indicated  thus 
early  the  trend  of  his  opinions  and  of  his  aspirations.  Of  one 
of  these  he  writes : 

"  I  find  it  is  so  hard  to  preach  as  I  desire,  so  many  little 
ambitions  thrusting  themselves  in  to  influence  and  shape  my 
sermons.  A  right  heart  has,  I  believe,  as  much  to  do  with 
the  matter  as  anything.  I  think  yesterday's  sermon  was  well 
received.  I  only  hope  the  doctrine  was  according  to  the  mind 
of  the  Spirit,  and  that  God  was  not  displeased  with  it.  I  feel 
more  and  more  the  worthlessness  of  man's  applause,  and  I 
have  a  deepening  desire  to  please  Christ  in  all  such  works. 
I  send  you  a  little  notice  of  it  (very  flattering).  It  is  only  for 
you,  dearest,  not  for  myself." 

Six  years  flew  by— years  of  study,  of  faithful  pastoral  work, 
of  continuous  growth.  The  little  church  developed  in  num- 
bers and  power.     Pastor  and  people  were  bound  together  in 


THE    YOUNG   MINISTER  45 

the  bonds  of  a  heart-deep  affection.  Three  children  were 
born  into  the  home  by  the  pond.  We  get  a  peep  into  that 
home  hfe  now  and  then  through  the  aperture  of  the  father's 
correspondence. 

"  You  will  naturally  ask,"  he  writes  on  one  occasion,  "with 
your  jealous  disposition,  if  I  have  paid  attention  to  any  lady 
in  your  absence.  I  answer  solemnly,  none!  Only  your  old 
dress  fell  at  my  feet  as  I  was  brushing  through  the  closet,  and 
in  picking  it  up  I  involuntarily  embraced  it,  and  even  clutched 
a  kiss  from  the  eloquent  emptiness  that  protruded  from  the 
neck.  I  gazed  this  morning,  I  confess  lovingly  for  a  married 
man  in  his  wife's  absence,  on  one  sweet  face  that  crossed  my 
path ;  but  it  was  in  gilt  and  hung,  and  therefore  I  plead  no 
guilt  for  myself,  or  at  least  a  suspension  of  judgment.  I  will 
make  a  clean  breast  of  it.  I  have  stopped  several  times  a  day 
before  a  certain  window,  and  gazed  perhaps  too  admiringly 
on  a  beautiful  maiden  face  that  has  looked  out  therefrom. 
But  you  will  forgive  me.  It's  only  '  Wosa,'  seated  just  as 
Haley  left  her  in  the  little  rocking-chair  at  the  parlor  window. 
What  touching  reminders  of  the  loved  ones  these  httle  things 
are !  '  Wosa '  sitting  so  demurely,  waiting  for  the  return  of 
her  little  mistress,  and  your  winter  dress  pendent  from  the  nail 
in  the  closet— these  can  hold  enough  of  the  subtle  element  to 
impart  a  strong  shock  to  one  who  comes  en  rapport. 

"  P.  S.  — I  send  you  the  money,  thereby  showing  my  fidelity 
to  my  marriage  vow,  to  love,  honor,  and  buy  things  for  you." 

But  the  cloud  that  was  to  overcast  his  sky  had  now  appeared 
above  the  horizon.  Seated  alone  in  his  study  one  evening  in 
the  fall  of '67,  writing  on  his  Sunday  sermon,  and  rocking 
now  and  then  the  cradle  of  his  last  baby,  who  slept  placidly 
beside  him,  he  was  suddenly  startled  by  a  sharp  pull  at  his 
door-bell.  That  ring  was  to  resound  in  his  ears  for  the  next 
two  years,  keeping  him  in  a  distress  of  doubt  and  hesitation. 
For  it  was  the  first  summons  to  a  new  field  of  labor.     The 


46  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

servant  was  even  then  ushering  into  his  diminutive  parlor  the 
accredited  delegates  from  an  important  pastorless  Boston 
church,  who  came  to  tender  him  a  call  "  hearty  and  unani- 
mous." Should  he  accept?  Impossible!  No  man  was  ever 
more  loved  by  his  people.  No  home  was  ever  dearer  to  father 
and  husband  than  the  one  where  he  was  sitting.  No  field  of 
usefulness  could  offer  more  opportunities  for  a  measured,  yet 
none  the  less  vital,  rehgious  activity.  His  declination  was 
given  out  of  hand,  and  was  soon  followed  by  a  more  formal 
and  decisive  refusal.  But  the  end  was  not  yet.  A  year 
passed,  and  still  the  city  church  was  without  a  head,  and  still 
the  delegations  continued  to  call  at  the  suburban  manse. 
"  Why  will  they  not  let  me  alone,"  he  writes,  "  and  not  press 
their  suit?  I  wish  I  were  out  of  it.  If  you  will  go  to  them 
and  get  me  off  in  my  absence,  and  agree  that  they  shall  never 
trouble  me  again,  I  will  give  you  half  of  my  kingdom.  I  am 
well-nigh  insane  over  the  matter.  Tell  all  my  flock  how  I 
love  them,  and  how  I  loathe  the  pastures  of  Boston  and  the 
bulls  of  State  Street,  which  are  worse  than  those  of  Bashan. 
Thank  God,  their  call  cannot  divide  me  from  you,  though  it 
may  thrust  me  forth  from  my  Paradise.  What  a  comfort  it 
must  have  been  to  Adam  that,  though  expelled  from  Eden, 
Eve  went  with  him!  " 

At  the  expiration  of  the  first  year  he  yielded,  and  wrote  out 
a  letter  of  acceptance.  But  this  step  was  followed  by  a  re- 
vulsion of  feeling.  The  letter  was  torn  to  pieces  with  many 
expressions  of  self-recrimination  for  his  disloyalty  to  the  church 
of  his  first  love.  Finally,  however,  the  pressure  became  too 
strong,  and,  after  two  years  of  waiting,  he  agreed  to  become 
pastor  of  the  Clarendon  Street  Church.  In  the  month  of 
December,  1869,  amid  the  universal  mourning  of  the  flock,  he 
left  Jamaica  Plain  to  take  up  the  work  the  completion  of 
which  was  to  constitute  the  capital  achievement  of  his  life. 

His  Meisterjahre  had  now  begun! 


THE    YOUNG  MINISTER  47 

Two  long-buried  and  long-forgotten  essays,  contributed  to 
the  "  Baptist  Quarterly  "  in  these  years,  give  one  a  glimpse 
into  the  things  which  then  occupied  his  mind.  In  his  after 
ministry  he  distinctly  abandoned  all  that  would  suggest  po- 
lemics, aiming  to  be,  not  a  champion,  but  a  proclaimer  of  the 
gospel.  That  he  could  reason  closely  and  hit  strongly— that 
he  had  a  keen  appreciation  of  his  opponent's  weak  points,  and 
of  the  opportunities  which  these  offered— is  seen  in  the  sub- 
joined extracts.  To  lay  aside  the  tempting  weapon  of  wit 
and  of  aggressive  discussion,  so  easily  and  so  admirably  used, 
must  indeed  have  cost  much  self-restraint.  It  evidences,  too, 
a  clearly  changed  conviction  as  to  the  duty  of  a  Christian: 
to  endure  reproach,  to  disregard  opposition,  and  to  preach  the 
simple  gospel  without  turning  to  right  or  left— this  was  to  be 
the  program  of  the  maturer  years. 

In  the  first  of  these  articles  he  outlines  and  criticizes  the 
position  which  F.  W.  Robertson  had  taken  on  the  question 
of  baptismal  regeneration.  He  follows  the  anise-seed  bag  of 
Robertson's  reasonings  in  its  whole  tortuous  career,  doubling 
with  it  when  it  doubled,  running  down  upon  it  on  every 
straight  course  of  honest  logic,  detecting  the  scent  where  it 
seems  least  perceptible,  and  where  a  less  close  reasoner  would 
be  surely  confounded.  He  breaks  the  ice,  and  beneath  the 
shining  rhetoric  shows  us  the  black,  chill  current  of  soph- 
istry. We  take  from  this  paper  the  following  suggestive  ex- 
tracts : 

"  It  was  a  favorite  theory  of  Robertson's  that  truth  is  a 
union  of  two  contradictories.  Rejecting  that  method  in  the- 
ology which  seeks  to  go  between  two  opposite  views,  and  to 
find  the  truth  in  a  kind  of  middle  region,  or  temperate  zone, 
removed  alike  from  either  extreme,  he  regarded  all  great 
truths  as  having  such  a  latitude  that  they  can  embrace  within 
themselves  every  zone  and  every  temperature  of  belief.  He 
would  tell  the  Calvinist  and  the  Arminian,  the  Romanist  and 


48  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  Protestant,  that,  however  widely  they  may  be  separated 
from  each  other,  their  separation  is,  after  all,  only  geographi- 
cal ;  and  that  the  belief  of  each  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  neces- 
sary for  the  equipoise  and  completeness  of  Christian  doctrine. 
One  is  constantly  discerning  the  influence  of  this  pernicious 
maxim  in  his  aversion  to  sharp  discriminations  and  radical 
separations  between  the  true  and  the  false  ;  in  his  fondness  for 
seeking  the  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil ;  in  his  tendency  to 
locate  error  on  the  extreme  confines  of  truth  rather  than  within 
another  and  totally  different  kingdom,  and  to  look  upon 
human  depravity  as  rather  a  misconception  by  the  soul  of  its 
true  position,  than  an  actual  perversion  from  the  right.  In  his 
discussions  of  the  subject  of  baptism,  this  fault  is  everywhere 
apparent,  and,  though  there  is  a  great  and  admirably  stated 
truth  running  through  them  all,  it  is  always  seen  writhing, 
Laocoon-like,  in  the  folds  of  the  two  '  contradictories,'  and  is 
therefore  so  disfigured  and  contorted  that  it  presents  no  very 
engaging  aspect.   .  .  . 

"  Robertson  reduces  regeneration  to  an  exceedingly  small 
matter.  It  is  with  him  simply  the  giving  of  full  credence  to 
a  piece  of  information.  Baptism  is  the  bearer  of  that  informa- 
tion. It  comes  to  a  man  who  is  stupidly  sleeping  in  sin,  and 
before  he  has  ever  asked  for  the  portion  of  goods  that  falleth 
to  him,  or  ever  thought  whether  he  has  any  portion,  it  puts 
its  hand  upon  his  head  and  says,  '  You  are  hereby  informed 
that  you  are  a  child  of  God  and  have  a  right  to  all  the  privi- 
leges and  emoluments  of  sonship.'  If  perchance  the  person 
thus  addressed  is  incredulous,  and  refuses  to  believe,  the  mes- 
sage immediately  becomes  practically  reversed,  and  announces 
to  him  that  he  is  a  child  of  wrath ;  that  is,  the  '  eternal  fact,' 
which  was  to  be  iransmitted  in  the  '  baptismal  dew,'  by  com- 
ing in  contact  with  the  chiUing  unbelief  of  the  candidate  is 
precipitated  into  a  practical  fiction.  .  .  . 

"  '  Baptism  does  not  create  the  fact;  it  reveals  it.''     It  is  the 


THE    YOUNG  MINISTER  49 

divine  philosopher's  stone,  whose  touch  transmutes  a  de  jure 
condition  into  a  de  facto  one.  The  pure  gold  of  grace  was 
present,  however,  just  as  really  before  as  after  the  subtle  pro- 
cess of  spiritual  alchemy,  but  undiscerned  by  its  fortunate 
possessor  and  unrecognized  by  God.  Now  it  is  discovered, 
assayed,  and  stamped  with  God's  image  and  superscription, 
and  put  into  circulation. 

"All  this  is  beautiful  and  satisfactory  enough  till  some  per- 
son brings  back  one  of  these  rare  coins  to  this  ecclesiastical 
mint,  and,  displaying  it  all  rusted  and  corroded  with  the  pomps 
and  vanities  of  this  world,  protests  that  it  is  spurious.  In  such 
a  case  it  would  seem  that  our  author  would  be  driven  to  the 
admission  that  some  of  his  de  jure  material  was  not  genuine, 
and  that  the  stamp  upon  it  was  the  symbol  of  an  unreal  value. 
Not  at  all.  The  whole  difficulty  lies  in  a  want  of  confidence 
in  it,  and  in  a  failure  by  the  owner  to  recognize  God's  mark 
upon  it.  Let  him  believe  that  it  is  genuine,  and  it  is  genuine  ; 
or,  in  Robertson's  language,  '  to  believe  the  fact  (declared  in 
baptism),  and  to  live  it,  is  to  be  regenerate.' 

"  Here  is  the  same  confusion  of  ideas  introduced  into  the 
doctrine  of  baptism  which  the  transubstantiator  has  introduced 
into  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  thing  demanded  by  the  church 
in  each  case  is  the  bringing  in  of  the  real  presence  into  that 
which  was  designed  simply  for  a  sign  and  symbol.  But  in 
this  instance  both  priest  and  people  revolt  from  the  material- 
ism which  an  open,  literal  introduction  of  it  involves,  and  at- 
tempt, therefore,  to  bring  it  in  by  a  metaphysical  sleight  of 
hand,  the  belief  in  a  practical  falsehood  being  the  sine  qua 
non  condition  to  the  realization  of  the  truth. 

Believe  that  you  eat  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  eucharist,' 
said  Sir  Thomas  More,  in  his  discussion  with  Erasmus,  '  and 
you  eat  it.' 

Believe  that  you  are  regenerated  in  your  baptism,'  says 
Robertson,  '  and  you  are  regenerated,'     The  divergence  here 


so  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

from  Scripture  may  be  stated  very  briefly.  The  Bible  repre- 
sents men  as  'believing  a  lie,  that  they  might  be  damned.' 
Robertson  would  have  them  believe  a  lie,  that  they  might  be 
saved.  .  .  . 

"  There  is  a  saying  of  an  old  divine  that  a  '  ceremony  duly 
instituted  is  a  chain  of  gold  around  the  neck  of  faith ;  but  if, 
in  the  wish  to  make  it  coessential  and  cosubstantial,  you  draw 
it  closer  and  closer,  it  may  strangle  the  faith  it  was  meant  to 
deck  and  designate.'  This,  we  beheve,  is  exactly  what  Rob- 
ertson's argument  does.  He  did  not  wish  to  make  baptism 
coessential  and  cosubstantial  with  regeneration,  but  his  creed 
required  it.  And  so,  while  attempting  to  take  off  the  coarse 
and  cumbersome  chain  which  Rome  has  forged  upon  the  neck 
of  regeneration,  he  has  substituted  another,  wrought  of  finer 
substance,  and  forged  into  an  almost  invisible  tenuity ;  whose 
delicate  links  of  sophistry  and  error,  while  they  bind  in  a  less 
oppressive  bondage,  suffocate  with  no  less  certain  death. 

"  The  doctrine  of  a  radical  renewal  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  of 
a  thorough  revolution  and  reconstruction  of  the  moral  nature 
by  the  sovereign  agency  of  the  Spirit  of  God — a  change 
wrought  in  time,  and  made  recognizable  to  the  consciousness 
— has  no  place  in  this  theology.  .  .   . 

"  The  strict  Episcopal  view  makes  baptism,  when  it  has  been 
performed,  stand  ever  after  for  regeneration,  as  the  currency 
represents  the  coin  in  the  vault;  but,  at  the  same  time,  the 
church  is  so  strongly  convinced  that  her  issue  vastly  exceeds 
the  piety  which  she  can  show  for  it,  that  she  asks  the  'judg- 
ment of  charity,'  and  so  virtually  goes  into  ecclesiastic  insol- 
vency, though  meanwhile  still  continuing  to  send  forth  her 
bonds. 

"  The  Pedobaptist  who  denies  baptismal  regeneration  usu- 
ally puts  the  rite  for  a  hoped-for  renewal,  thus  making  it  simply 
promissory,  with  no  security  but  the  unmortgageable  piety  of 
Others.     Those  who  carry  out  Robertson's  definition  to  its 


THE    YOUNG  MINISTER  51 

legitimate  results  make  baptism  stand  for  regeneration, 
vouched  for  by  the  best  possible  evidence  in  an  inward  ex- 
perience and  in  the  external  life.  At  the  same  time,  they 
stand  ready  to  recall  the  act  when  they  are  convinced  that, 
through  a  mistake  of  judgment,  it  has  been  wrongly  applied. 
So  that,  while,  according  to  each  view,  the  ordinance  pro- 
fesses to  represent  the  same  thing,  we  believe  that  the  last 
has  every  advantage  for  representing  it  most  fairly,  and  hence 
is  least  open  to  the  stigma  of  being  a  hollow  form.  .  .  .  The 
view  which  is  most  scriptural,  however,  regards  the  act  as  pro- 
ceeding not  from  God,  but  from  the  candidate  himself.  It  is 
not  God's  call  or  annunciation  to  him,  but  his  sacramentutn, 
or  oath  of  allegiance,  to  Christ.  If,  through  hypocrisy  or  self- 
deception,  it  is  unworthily  assumed,  it  is  simply  a  false  oath, 
and  hence  a  totally  invalid  act ;  and  that  is  all  that  need  be 
said  concerning  it.  No  elaborate  device  of  logic  is  demanded 
for  releasing  God  from  a  seeming  breach  of  his  covenant ; 
nor,  on  the  other  hand,  any  subtle  mystification  of  words  for 
endowing  a  baptized  man  with  a  character  which  is  out  of 
harmony  with  both  his  Hfe  and  his  consciousness. 

"  Baptism  being,  in  our  view,  simply  a  divine  symbolic  lan- 
guage, given  us  for  expressing  certain  spiritual  ideas,  can  be 
truthful  only  as  it  is  idiomatic— the  vernacular,  so  to  speak, 
of  the  new  life.  If  strangers  and  foreigners  use  it,  their  ex- 
pression is  to  be  taken  as  the  expression  of  those  who  know 
not  what  they  say.  If  deceivers  employ  it,  it  is  simply  wrested 
to  the  uses  of  perjury.   .   .   ." 

The  other  article  has  in  it  just  a  trace  of  severity,  which  is 
not  unnatural  if  one  remembers  the  complacent  assumption 
which  characterizes  the  periodical  summons  to  an  Episcopal 
Canossa.  In  later  years,  when  the  subject  of  "  church  unity  " 
was  mentioned.  Dr.  Gordon  was  quite  likely  to  tell  good- 
humoredly  the  story  of  a  quaint  relative,  a  Congregational 
preacher,  who  defended  "  the  validity  of  his  ordination  "  by 


52  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  contention  that  he  was  the  best  blacksmith  who  could 
make  the  best  horseshoe,  whether  or  no  he  could  trace  his 
descent  from  Tubal  Cain.  The  hauteur  of  churchmen  who 
"  desire  to  be  Catholic  as  well  as  Protestant,  like  those  church- 
men of  evil  memory  who  would  be  neither  hot  nor  cold,"  ceases 
to  irritate  when  one  estimates  it  properly.  No  Christian  ex- 
periences any  difficulty  in  realizing  the  most  vital  unity  if  only 
he  has  grace  and  honesty  enough  to  treat  his  fellow-Christians 
as  common  followers  of  a  common  Lord,  and  if  his  sense  is 
sufficiently  acute  to  comprehend  that  money  is  money  whether 
it  be  broken  into  silver  bits  or  dressed  in  the  pretentious  garb 
of  the  greenback.  That  the  young  pastor,  in  his  study  and 
among  his  periodicals,  was,  perhaps,  unduly  incensed  by  "  the 
eddy  of  purposeless  dust "  which  the  advocates  of  "  unity  " 
were  raising,  is  evident  from  the  extracts  which  follow.  That 
he  valued,  however,  to  the  utmost,  the  communion  and  coop- 
eration of  the  saints  in  the  fxeydXr]  eKKXrjala — that  unity  of  the 
Spirit  so  far  removed  from  a  factitious  uniformity,  "  icily  regu- 
lar, splendidly  null  " — is  clear  from  his  whole  subsequent  career. 

This  article  was  called  out  by  the  appeal  of  a  recently  formed 
"  Christian  Unity  Society  "  ;  of  the  appeal  he  says  : 

"The  spirit  of  the  address  is  kind  and  conciliatory,  as  of 
course  it  could  well  afford  to  be.  It  denies  in  words  that  the 
unity  sought  requires  '  absolute  absorption  and  conversion  into 
identity'  with  the  church— conformity  and  uniformity  in  all 
things — but  clearly  proves  the  same  in  its  arguments.  In 
words  it  pays  an  appreciative  tribute  to  the  zeal  and  efficiency 
and  usefulness  of  various  Christian  denominations,  but  in  argu- 
ment declares  their  existence  to  be  an  evil.  In  words  it  seems 
to  have  an  enthusiasm  for  the  work  proposed  that  is  totally 
disinterested  and  magnanimous  ;  in  argument  it  proves  that  its 
zeal  is  for  its  own  church  and  for  the  welfare  of  its  own  dear- 
est cause.  All  this  is  natural  enough.  It  does  not  offend. 
Only  the  whole  subject  suggests  certain  difficulties  to  our  mind 


THE    YOUNG  MINISTER  53 

that  the  writer  has  failed  to  solve.  These  we  propose  at  this 
time  to  consider, 

"  The  fundamental  idea  of  the  association  is  this :  that  non- 
conformity in  religion  is  the  great  evil  of  the  church,  and  that 
the  highest  success  of  the  gospel  can  be  attained  only  in  ec- 
clesiastical uniformity.  We  believe,  on  the  contrary,  that  there 
is  much  that  is  good,  and  much  that  calls  for  profound  grati- 
tude, in  the  present  economy  of  an  externally  divided  church. 
It  undoubtedly  gives  free  scope  to  her  varied  and  otherwise 
conflicting  activities,  brings  harmony  out  of  her  antagonisms, 
ajid  economizes  forces  by  separating  them,  which  must  else 
be  wasted  by  their  own  friction.  How  much,  too,  does  the 
church  owe  to  the  existence  of  sects  for  clearness  and  com- 
pactness in  the  statement  of  her  doctrines ;  how  many  crude 
and  unphilosophical  symbols  have  been  ground  down  and  pol- 
ished by  the  attrition  of  controversy ;  how  much  of  error  and 
misconception  have  been  sifted  out  of  the  creeds  by  polemical 
winnowings  and  threshings ;  how  repeatedly  have  the  accre- 
tions of  falsehood,  which  in  the  course  of  time  gather  about 
religious  truth,  been  removed  by  the  sharp  antagonisms  of  sec- 
tarian strife ;  how  many  ideas,  in  fine,  the  most  vital  and  pre- 
cious to  the  church,  have,  humanly  speaking,  been  kept  alive 
by  the  jealous  circumspections  of  the  denominations!  The 
evils  which  result  from  monopoly  of  the  gospel,  perversions  of 
it  in  the  interest  of  a  single  church,  biased  interpretations  and 
one-sided  expositions,  have  unquestionably  been  very  largely 
prevented  by  the  presence  and  watchfulness  of  differing  reli- 
gious orders. 

" '  Christianity,'  says  Bunsen,  '  proves  itself  to  be  the  reli- 
gion of  the  world  by  its  power  of  surviving  the  inherent  crises 
of  development  through  which  it  has  had  to  pass.'  Yes,  and, 
we  add,  by  its  power  of  fully  meeting  those  crises  out  of  its 
own  resources ;  of  fitting  itself  into  all  the  convolutions  of  his- 
tory ;  of  pushing  itself  out  into  the  ever-varying  want  and  woe 


54  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

of  humanity.  And  how  has  it  been  able  to  do  this  ?  By  the 
diversity  of  its  outward  organizations ;  by  its  abiUty  to  assume 
manifold  forms  of  operation,  and  work  successfully  through 
them. 

"  Methodism  is  an  exact  illustration  of  what  we  mean.  It  is 
perfectly  clear  that,  at  the  time  when  it  arose,  the  establish- 
ment had  become  so  unwieldy,  so  hampered  with  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  rules,  that  it  was  utterly  unable  to  meet  the  pre- 
vaihng  demand  for  a  free  and  missionary  gospel.  If,  here  and 
there,  a  preacher  was  to  be  found  who  had  true  evangelical 
zeal,  his  jurisdiction  was  so  prescribed  by  the  fences  of  the 
church  that  his  zeal  profited  him  nothing.  When  John  Ber- 
ridge  undertook  to  carry  salvation  to  the  poor  and  unprivileged 
about  him,  on  the  ground  that  his  conscience  impelled  him  to 
seek  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  he  was  summoned 
before  the  bishop  with  the  rebuke,  '  As  to  your  conscience, 
you  know  that  preaching  out  of  your  parish  is  contrary  to  the 
canons  of  the  church.' 

"  But  Providence  met  the  exigency.  Out  of  the  church, 
and  in  spite  of  her  opposition,  came  forth  that  noble  system  of 
itinerancy  which  has  carried  salvation  to  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands,  and  has  continued  until  this  day  one  of  the  most 
potent  agencies  for  reclaiming  lost  men, 

"  But  the  churchman  sees  nothing  in  the  origin  of  this  soci- 
ety to  rejoice  over.  *  All  must  feel,'  says  our  author,  *  how 
needless  and  how  fearfully  mixed  with  wrong  on  both  sides 
was  the  Wesleyan  separation.'  Needless,  forsooth !  No  power 
on  earth  can  forever  check  a  living  stream  in  its  course.  From 
the  very  dams  that  have  restrained  it,  it  will  every  day  gain 
strength  for  the  inevitable  rupture.  Similarly,  no  device  of 
priest  or  bishop  can  so  choke  the  life  of  Christianity  in  the 
church  as  completely  to  shut  it  off  from  those  who  are  panting 
for  its  blessings.  It  must  break  out  somewhere,  and  if  it  be- 
comes irregular  in  its  course,  the  fault  lies  with  those  who  at- 


THE    YOUNG  MINISTER  55 

tempted  to  repress  it.  It  is  not  a  wrong  on  both  sides.  If 
the  blood  cannot  flow  in  the  arteries  of  the  church  because  of 
the  pressure  of  some  human  obstructions,  then  there  must  be 
an  anastomosis.  Vitahty  must  be  supphed  to  all  the  members 
of  Christ's  body. 

"  There  are  evils  of  which  this  address  makes  no  mention, 
and  for  which  it  proposes  no  remedy — the  dull  immobility,  the 
stagnation  of  religious  thought  and  of  reUgious  hfe,  which 
have  been  invariable  accompaniments  of  ecclesiastical  uni- 
formity. Against  these,  sectarianism  has  been  in  constant 
antagonism.  And  if  it  had  performed  no  other  office,  this 
were  enough  to  secure  it  from  the  imputation  of  being  an  un- 
mitigated evil. 

"  When  the  question  comes  between  a  dead  uniformity  and 
a  living  diversity,  it  would  seem  as  if  there  could  be  very  little 
difficulty  in  choosing.  And  yet  we  believe  that  the  first  of 
these  conditions  is  the  alternative  offered  us  by  this  society. 

"  As  though  the  illustration  which  Romanism  has  given  of 
a  Christianity  completely  paralyzed  by  the  clamps  and  con- 
straints of  ritualism  were  not  sufficient,  it  is  now  proposed  to 
repeat  the  experiment :  to  take  the  faith  of  Christendom  as  it 
is  held  in  solution  by  the  various  sects,  and  crystallize  it  about 
the  Thirty-nine  Articles  or  the  Nicene  Creed ;  to  constrain  its 
varied  devotion  into  exact  and  rigidly  defined  channels ;  to 
put  all  its  worship  into  regulation  dress ;  to  compress  its  free 
and  plastic  life  into  concerted  formulas  and  modes ;  to  sacrifice 
a  variety  which  fully  accords  with  a  true  unity  to  a  unity 
that  has  no  variety;  and  to  call  back  all  the  'children  of 
the  dispersion '  from  their  widely  different  yet  spiritually  ac- 
cordant labors,  and  bid  them  all  march  to  the  music  and 
measure  of  the  'historic  church.'  Theoretically  the  propo- 
sition is  untenable  enough,  but  practically  it  is  even  more  so. 

'  To  ask  Methodism,  with  its  splendid  record  of  fidelity  to 
the  claims  of  a  missionary  gospel,  with  its  noble  history  of 


$6  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

self-sacrificing  and  evangelic  labor,  to  come  back  and  be  ab- 
sorbed again  into  the  church  from  which  it  sprang,  abandon- 
ing that  organism  which,  however  faulty  it  may  be  in  some 
respects,  has  penetrated  a  stratum  of  society  that  the  cumber- 
some machinery  of  the  Anglican  Church  never  did,  and  never 
could,  efifectually  reach ;  to  ask  Congregationalism,  after  hav- 
ing stamped  its  pohty  upon  our  rising  institutions,  and  done 
more  than  anything  else  to  mould  and  determine  that  noble 
republicanism  which  we  now  enjoy,  to  return  into  a  church 
whose  whole  genius  and  history  has  been  so  manifestly  on  the 
side  of  monarchy — is  to  ask  simply  that  Romulus  and  Remus, 
after  having  grown  to  manhood,  should  go  back  and  be  suckled 
on  that  creed  which  nourished  them  kindly  enough  in  their 
infancy,  but  which  was  never  designed  to  feed  them  in  ma- 
turer  life. 

"And  this  suggests  another  grave  objection  to  the  theory  of 
the  address;  namely,  that  it  presupposes  the  possibility  of  a 
harmless  return  from  spirituality  to  ritualism.  That  symbols 
have  done  much  to  develop  ideas,  that  types  have  had  a 
blessed  mission  in  helping  to  bring  forth  spiritual  conceptions, 
and  to  lead  them  through  adolescence  into  maturity,  is  a  fact 
too  obvious  to  be  denied.  But  to  suppose  that  ideas  that  have 
once  sloughed  off  their  skins  can  be  made  to  crawl  back  into 
them  and  still  maintain  a  healthy  life  is  quite  another  matter. 
It  is  to  imagine  that  manhood  can  return  to  the  swaddhng- 
bands  of  infancy — that  the  church  can  leave  the  more  '  stately 
mansions  *  into  which,  by  discipline  and  training,  by  reforma- 
tions and  revolutions,  Providence  has  brought  her,  and  crouch 
down  again  into  her  '  low-vaulted  past.'  .  .  . 

"  Since  episcopalism  professes  to  regard  the  Romish  Church 
as  corrupt  and  degenerate,  the  inference  is  that  they  hold  it 
to  be  only  a  medium  of  communication,  and  not  in  any  sense 
a  vital  part  of  the  succession.     So  that,  within  its  decay  and 


THE    YOUNG  MINISTER  57 

corruption,  the  germ  of  the  true  organic  unity  has  been  pre- 
served, wrapped  up,  hke  the  Egyptian  wheat,  in  the  swathes 
of  the  mummy,  waiting  for  Providence  to  bring  about  the 
necessary  conditions  for  its  growth  and  development.  This 
theory  seems  certainly  to  be  philosophical,  perfectly  consistent 
with  the  analogies  of  history. 

"  But  the  hypothesis  being  once  admitted,  why  cannot 
those  denominations  which  have  sprung  from  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  which  charge  that  church  with  being  a  perversion, 
rise  up  and  claim  that  they  have  been  derived  from  the  true 
germ— the  germ  of  which  episcopacy  was  the  repository — and 
hence  that  they  have  the  only  true  succession?  What  then 
becomes  of  the  claims  of  the  churchman?  If,  by  a  legitimate 
process  of  exogenous  growth,  they  who  once  constituted  the 
heart  of  Christianity  find  themselves  pushed  outward  to  its  ex- 
terior, into  the  bark  and  tegument  of  mere  formalism,  surely 
they  cannot  complain  that  there  is  anything  anomalous  in  the 
position  of  those  who  have  supplanted  them.  Least  of  all  can 
they  with  good  grace  press  their  own  claim  of  still  constituting 
the  pith  and  marrow  of  the  church. 

"  And  the  Scripture  argument  for  any  such  succession  of  the 
priesthood  is  still  more  unsatisfactory.  It  impresses  one  as 
almost  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  forced  interpretation,  two 
or  three  texts  being  made  to  bear  up  the  whole  superstructure 
of  argument  against  hundreds  whose  genius  is  most  obviously 
opposed  to  it.  Nine  parts  of  conclusion  are  found  to  every 
one  part  of  premise,  reminding  us  most  forcibly  of  Coleridge's 
description  of  such  interpretations  as  '  smoke-like  wreaths  of  in- 
ference,' or  an  '  ever- widening  spiral  ergo  from  the  narrow  aper- 
ture of  perhaps  a  single  text.' 

"  The  boon,  therefore,  which  is  offered  us  in  organic  unity 
as  here  defined  has,  we  are  constrained  to  say,  no  special  value 
to  us,  because  we  cannot  appreciate  our  need  of  it. 


58  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

"  We  see  no  necessity  of  drawing  the  life  which  we  receive 
from  Christ  through  a  channel  so  long  and  tortuous  that  to 
explore  it  is  an  impossible  task,  or  of  tracing  our  descent  from 
his  apostles  through  a  lineage  so  obscure  that  we  cannot  tell 
whether  we  are  sons  or  bastards.  We  believe  in  a  Christ  as 
the  Head  of  the  church,  who  lives  and  reigns  forever,  who 
not  only  holds  his  mysterious  union  with  his  church  still  un- 
broken, but  constantly  energizes  and  reinforces  that  church 
by  fresh  infusions  of  his  life ;  so  that  the  vitality  of  the  chil- 
dren does  not  depend  upon  the  vitality  of  their  ancestors. 
We  believe  his  union  with  his  church  is  direct,  not  mediate — 
a  union  of  incorporation,  not  of  remote  connection.  And 
hence  it  matters  little  whether  we  are  connected  with  the  origi- 
nal branches  of  the  True  Vine,  so  long  as  that  Vine  is  capable 
of  thrusting  out  fresh  shoots  alike  for  the  church  and  for  its 
ministry. 

"  For  any  one  of  the  coordinate  branches  of  the  church,  there- 
fore, to  attempt  to  bring  about  unity  by  setting  forth  its  own 
pattern  and  poHty  as  the  one  to  be  conformed  to,  exactly  or 
approximately,  by  all,  will  necessarily  be  of  little  use.  No 
sectarian  plea  against  sectarianism,  no  partizan  tirade  against 
religious  partizanship,  will  avail.  But  whatever  brings  the 
church  into  nearer  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  Christ  and 
his  gospel,  whatever  exalts  the  central  and  centralizing  truths 
of  our  common  faith,  will  do  most  toward  promoting  that  unity 
for  which  we  all  hope  and  pray.  In  the  beautiful  words  of 
the  author  of  '  The  Patience  of  Hope,'  '  The  bosom  of  Christ 
is  the  grave,  the  only  grave,  of  religious  acrimony ;  we  learn 
secrets  there  which  render  it  possible  for  us  to  be  of  one  heart, 
if  we  may  not  yet  be  of  one  mind,  with  all  who  lean  upon  it 
with  us.  For,  slightly  as  we  may  think  to  heal  long-festering 
hurts,  there  is  no  cure  for  religious  dissension  except  that  of 
spiritual  acquaintance  with  God,  as  revealed  to  us  in  the  mind 
and  spirit  of  Christ  Jesus.     To  acquaint  ourselves  thus  with 


THE    YOUNG   MINISTER  59 

God  is  to  be  at  peace,  for  it  is  to  learn  how  far  more  strong 
than  all  which  separates  is  that  which  unites  us  in  him.  So 
long  as  the  external  is  more  to  us  than  the  vital,  the  acciden- 
tal dearer  than  the  essential,  so  long  as  we  are  more  church- 
men, more  Protestants,  more  anything  than  Christians,  religious 
acerbity  will  continue.'  " 


CHAPTER  IV 

A    STONY    FIELD 

Difficulties  of  the  Boston  field — The  periodic  season  of  unbelief — 
-Unitarian-transcendentalism — Sluggish  religious  life  of  the  Claren- 
don Street  Church. 

THREE  things  combined  to  give  the  field  of  work  upon 
which  Gordon  had  now  entered  a  character  of  excep- 
tional difficulty :  the  general  current  of  doubt  at  that  time  pre- 
vailing in  educated  circles  here  and  abroad,  the  local  Unitarian- 
transcendental  movement,  then  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity, 
and  the  somewhat  contracted  spiritual  life  of  the  church  to 
which  he  was  now  to  minister. 


The  epoch  was  Sadducean.  Men  were  passing  into  that 
prison-house  of  which,  for  a  whole  generation,  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  has  held  the  keys.  The  Ancient  of  Days  had  been 
deposed  in  favor  of  the  Unknowable.  In  matter  the  promise 
and  potency  of  all  things  were  to  be  sought  and  found. 
"  Science,"  an  o'ershadowing  swash-buckler,  defied  all  the 
opinions  and  generalizations  which  had  until  its  day  been 
maintained.     Then  were  rung  the  changes  on 

"  Geology,  ethnology,  those  little  passing-bells 
That  signify  some  faith's  about  to  die." 

How  seductively  the  chimes  did  peal— not  in  violent  clangor, 
but  with  a  charming  melancholy  as  the  old,  beautiful,  much- 
regretted,  but  hopelessly  obsolete,  beliefs  were  laid  away  to 
their  long  rest !    A  new  anti-religious  classification  had  arisen. 

60 


A    STONY  FIELD  6 1 

Men  called  themselves  agnostics— a  name  of  gentlemanly  note, 
a  pledge  of  culture,  without  the  anarchic  suggestions  of  un- 
veiled atheism.  Those  were  the  days  when  the  educated  mob 
ridiculed  the  belief  in  a  purposing,  sovereign  Maker,  Tele- 
ology, that  ancient  prop  of  faith,  was,  they  thought,  being  un- 
dermined and  destroyed  completely  and  for  all  time  by  the 
great  Darwin,  as  he  studied  his  earthworms  and  rock-pigeons. 
We  know  now  that  he  was  digging,  though  unconsciously, 
but  to  lay  the  foundations  deeper;  for  Darwinism,  which'was 
to  be  the  very  escarpment  of  Doubting  Casde,  has  proved  in 
the  end  a  buttress  to  the  house  of  the  Lord  God.  The  evo- 
lution theory  had  its  foundations  in  eternal  verities.  The 
deductions  and  misapplications  and  perverse  generalizations 
which  it  fathered  are  alone  false  and  frivolous. 


II 

Quite  the  contrary,  however,  was  it  with  the  local  unbelief. 
Unitarian-transcendentalism  was  based  upon  a  false  psychol- 
ogy and  upon  a  wholly  non-ethical  conception  of  history. 
The  attitude  of  Unitarianism  was  and  is  distinctively  negative. 
Denial  has  been  its  tradition  from  the  days  of  Priestley  down 
to  the  present  hour.  In  earlier  years  it  was  busy  in  controvert- 
ing bald  statements  concerning  the  nature  of  the  Godhead. 
It  was  profoundly  convinced  that  three  could  never  be  one, 
and  was  content  to  do  battle  with  this  alleged  superstition. 
In  the  present  era  of  paradoxical  marvels,  of  matter-penetrat- 
ing rays,  and  of  mysterious  fourth  dimensions,  its  peculiar 
contention  has  not  the  support  in  antecedent  improbability 
which  it  once  might  have  seemed  to  have.  The  old  watch- 
cry,  accordingly,  attracts  little  interest  or  attention. 

Its  negative  positions  have  been  modified  to  a  great  extent 
by  the  positive  theory  of  "  transcendentahsm "  which  has 
flowed  along,  in  greater  or  less  confusion  and  intermixture, 


62  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

beside  and  within  it.  This  revival  of  Gnosticism  found  its 
coryphaeus  in  Emerson,  whose  influence  in  New  England  was 
due  primarily  to  the  fact  that  he  first  introduced  to  his  country- 
men, cut  off  from  the  intellectual  life  of  Europe,  and  shut  up 
to  a  rather  dry  and  formal  type  of  religion,  the  fermenting 
systems,  the  neologies  and  ideologies  of  Germany.  He  was 
the  first  to  travel  in  the  realms  of  gold,  a  naive  Marco  Polo, 
first  to  break  from  the  provincial  life  of  old  Massachusetts. 
His  ship  before  all  others  brought  over  the  strange  fruits  which 
now  come  daily  and  by  steamer-load.  We  of  the  present  for- 
get that  ship  and  its  burden  of  novelties.  No  longer  does 
the  "  seer  "  fill  the  whole  sky  like  a  new  angel  standing  in  the 
sun.  He  seems,  on  the  contrary,  a  gentle  mystagogue  with  a 
somewhat  superficial  culture,  who  unduly  exaggerated  the  im- 
portance of  the  systems  of  Fichte  and  Jacobi,  and  who  had 
not,  alas!  even  the  shadow  of  an  idea  of  the  evil  that  ravages 
this  earth. 

Amiel  says  that  "  the  best  measm-e  of  the  profundity  of  any 
religious  doctrine  is  given  by  its  conception  of  sin  and  of  the 
cure  of  sin."  Judged  by  this  test,  Emersonian  "transcen- 
dentalism" would  be  hardly  important  enough  to  command 
serious  consideration.  Yet,  if  it  has  no  philosophical  signifi- 
cance, it  has  had  a  place  too  baleful  in  the  life  of  New  Eng- 
land to  be  passed  over. 

"  Transcendentalism,"  a  modification  and  perverted  expres- 
sion of  the  theory  of  subjective  idealism,  makes  of  man  a  crea- 
tor.* Of  course,  therefore,  it  cannot  concede  him  to  be  a 
rascal.  The  logic  of  idealism  is  indeed  undeniable ;  yet,  after 
all,  it  remains  as  unbelievable  as  it  is  irrefutable.  The  "  tran- 
scendentalist "  induction  from  it  as  to  man's  moral  make-up, 
however,  is,  when  brought  to  the  touchstone  of  history  and  of 
datly  experience,  both  unbelievable  and  refutable.     "  It  as- 

*  O.  B.  Frothingham,  "Transcendentalism  in  New  England,"  pp. 
202,  119,  et  passim. 


A    STONY  FIELD  63 

serts,"  to  quote  the  word  of  its  historian,  "the  inalienable 
worth  of  man."  "  It  claims  for  all  men  what  Christianity 
claims  for  its  own  elect."  "  It  regards  the  inner  light  which 
Quakerism  attributes  to  the  supernatural  illumination  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  the  natural  endowment  of  the  human  mind." 
In  short,  it  inverts  the  order  of  the  Christian  revelation  in  its 
estimate  of  humanity  and  of  Christianity,  making  of  the  latter 
an  illustrious  example  and  fruit  of  the  greatness  of  man  instead 
of  a  resource  for  the  repair  of  human  shortcoming,  and  find- 
ing in  Jesus  a  notable  type  of  human  nature,  of  which  type 
we  all  partake  by  birthright  without  reference  to  repentance 
or  to  divine  renewal.  It  teaches  the  essential  goodness  of 
man,  and  the  indefinite  perfectibility  of  society. 

This  unwiUingness  to  acknowledge  the  corruption  of  the 
human  heart  was  the  essential  feature  of  "  transcendental " 
ethics.  "  Never  wrong  people  with  your  contritions,  nor  with 
dismal  views  of  society,"  Emerson  used  to  say.  Like  his  own 
humble-bee,  he  was  capable  of 

"  Seeing  only  what  is  fair, 
Sipping  only  what  is  sweet," 

and  the  result  was  a  serenity  of  mind  hardly  bought  at  the  ex- 
pense of  a  complete  ignorance  of  the  bitter,  wisdom-bringing 
tragedies  of  life.  "  That  horrid  burden  and  impediment  on 
the  soul  which  the  churches  call  sin,"  as  well  as  "  the  courses 
of  nature  and  the  prodigious  injustices  of  man  in  society, 
affected  him  with  neither  horror  nor  awe."  *  To  him  as  to  his 
fellows,  the  minor  prophets  of  unbelief — the  Alcotts,  the  Rip- 
leys,  the  Parkers — the  world  was  one  rose-garden,  the  mono- 
tone of  whose  loveliness  is  disturbed  by  neither  thorn  nor 
hidden  snake.  They  ignored  "  that  sin  which  circulates  in 
our  bodies  as  blood."  They  forgot  that  "savage,  brigand, 
and  madman  each  of  us  harbors,  in  repose  or  manacled,  but 

*  "  Emerson,"  by  Mr.  John  Morley. 


64  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

always  living,  in  the  recesses  of  his  own  heart."  *  And  as 
the  natural  and  inevitable  corollary  of  this  superficial  and 
false  estimate  of  the  place  of  evil  in  man's  economy,  there  fol- 
lowed a  low  and  inadequate  conception  of  holiness. 

Of  course  such  views  attained  great  popularity  with  those 
tired  of  two  hundred  years  of  honest  Puritanism.  Theodore 
Parker,  after  recounting  the  many  theories  to  which  the  men 
of  his  day  attributed  his  success,  said,  "  The  real  thing  they 
did  not  seem  to  hit  was  that  I  preached  an  idea  of  God,  of 
man,  and  of  religion  which  commended  itself  to  the  nature  of 
mankind."  t  Sure  enough.  It  is  indeed  cheering  to  "  the 
natm-al  man  "  to  be  told,  for  instance,  that  "  sin  has  no  more 
existence  than  the  phlogiston  which  was  premised  to  explain 
combustion,"  \  and  to  hear  all  reference  to  it  branded  as 
"  damaged  phraseology,  tainted  with  infamous  notions  of  God 
and  man."  |  And  if,  perchance,  mention  must  be  made  of  the 
petty  errors,  the  venial  omissions,  the  occasional  peccadillos, 
which  now  and  then  force  themselves  on  our  attention,  what 
more  soothing  and  reassuring  than  to  be  told  that  such  slips 
"  are  but  the  incidents  of  our  attempt  to  get  command  over 
our  faculties";  §  that,  "just  as  children  in  learning  to  write 
mistake  letters,  miscall  words,  and  miswrite  phrases,"  so  we, 
by  "  these  experiments  which  fail,  learn  self-command." 

Such  was  the  lavender-water  theology  preached  for  a  whole 
generation  by  this  priest  of  "  transcendentalism."  It  was  a 
theology,  too,  which  was  as  full  of  opposition  to  Christianity 
as  it  was  weak  and  irrational.  What  can  be  said  of  a  man 
who  could  speak  of  the  communion-table  in  this  way : 

"  On  what  terms  shall  a  person  be  allowed  once  a  month  in 

*  Taine,  "  Ancien  Regime."  Cf.  the  whole  destructively  critical 
treatment  of  the  kindred  views  of  J.  J.  Rousseau. 

t  Quoted  in  Frothingham's  "  Transcendentalism,"  p.  312. 

\  "  Theodore  Parker's  Life  and  Letters,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  151,  152. 

$  Ibid.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  400,  401,  149,  150, 


A    STONY  FIELD  65 

a  meeting-house  on  Sunday  to  eat  a  crumb  of  baker's  bread 
and  drink  a  sip  of  grocer's  wine,  whicli  the  deacon  has  bought 
at  a  shop  the  day  before?  The  Lord's  Supper  as  now  ad- 
ministered is  a  heathenish  rite,  and  means  very  Httle."  * 

Does  not  "hberahsm"  reach  in  such  utterances  its  nadir? 
Does  it  not  become  the  bare  synonym  for  an  indecent  folly 
and  hatred,  comparable  only  to  the  bitterest,  most  raucous, 
hate-inspired  antichristianity  of  Biichner  or  of  Anacharsis 
Clootz?  Yet  this  fanatic  is  even  now  spoken  of  currently  by 
Unitarians  as  St.  Theodore. 

The  refusal  to  recognize  realities,  and  especially  the  most 
terrible  of  all  realities,  has  been  punished  in  our  day  by  a 
comic  mania  for  foUies,  which  is  a  distinguishing  feature  of 
present-day  Boston  life.t  This  tendency  is  directly  traceable 
to  the  early  "  transcendentalists."  Any  one  who  turns  over  the 
files  of  the  "  Dial "  will  find  there  the  seed-corn  of  almost  all 
the  intellectual  hallucinations  which  have  here  flourished.  He 
will  find  there  that  headlong  and  unsophisticated  enthusiasm, 
that  undiscriminating,  open-armed  acceptance  of  new  things, 
and  that  contemptuous  rejection  of  what  had  been  the  milk 
of  life,  the  source  of  vigor  and  of  pristine  strength.  He  can 
there  run  up  and  down  the  whole  gamut  of  the  now  familiar 
"  liberal  slang,"  the  wearisome  phrases  about  ethnic  religions, 
salvation  by  character,  the  bigotry  of  creeds,  narrow  literalism, 
and  those  peculiarly  Emersonian  classifications  in  which  Jesus, 

*  "Theodore  Parker's  Life  and  Letters,"  vol.  i.,  p.  322.  He  recom- 
mends as  a  substitute,  we  believe,  the  coming  together  in  a  parlor  and 
eating,  if  one  likes,  curds  and  cream  and  baked  apples. 

t  One  recalls  Heine's  quatrain  (the  unquestioned  sovereignty  of 
dreamland  seems  to  have  passed  from  German  to  New  England  hands) : 

"  Franzosen  und  Russen  gehort  das  Land, 
Das  Meer  gehort  den  Britten  ; 
Wir  aber  fiihren  im  Luftreich  des  Traums 
Die  Herrschaft  unbestritten." 


66  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Socrates,  and  Buddha  are  coupled  in  a  patronizing  impartiality. 
He  will  find  the  mystically  meaningless  utterances  of  Bronson 
Alcott,  those  Orphic  sayings  about  "  the  poles  of  things  which 
are  not  integrated,"  "  the  intertwining  of  the  divine  Gemini," 
and  "  the  love  which  globes  and  the  wisdom  which  orbs  all 
things." 

The  manifestations  of  this  spirit  of  eccentric  novelty-hunt- 
ing have  been  endless  in  number  and  variety.  For  years  it 
found  its  most  acute  exhibition  in  the  summer  meetings  of 
wayward  "philosophers"  at  Concord.  It  has  broken  out  in 
manifold  scrofulous  vagaries,  such  as  spiritualism.  Christian 
Science,  theosophy,  and  esotericism.  Indeed,  as  Pascal  said, 
"it  is  the  incredulous  who  are  most  credulous,  the  skeptical 
who  are  most  surely  and  easily  duped."  A  French  epicure 
contended  that  the  discoverer  of  a  new  dish  is  a  greater  bene- 
factor than  he  who  announces  a  new  planet  swimming  within 
his  ken.  In  like  manner  does  this  community  estimate  spiritual 
things.  Any  new  fantastic  religious  importation  from  Asia 
precedes  in  popular  interest  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law 
and  of  judgment. 

We  can  trace  this  strange  malady,  this  restless  mania  for 
the  unusual,  to  that  tendency  in  the  "  transcendentalist  "  teach, 
ing  which  destroys  clean-cut  distinctions,  which,  from  its  al- 
leged absolute  point  of  view,  finds  all  rehgions  good,  and 
obscures  in  every  sphere  of  life  all  that  most  men  would  call 
evil.  We  are  able,  on  the  other  hand,  to  trace  that  icily  crit- 
ical temper  which  characterizes  Cambridge  and  Boston — that 
unresponsiveness,  that  insensitive,  stony,  unsympathetic  spirit 
which  no  man  who  stops  overnight  in  the  intellectual  hostelries 
of  Massachusetts  fails  to  perceive  or  succeeds  in  forgetting — 
to  the  Unitarianism  which  was  born  struggling  against  its 
mother,  Puritan  orthodoxy,  and  which  has  spent  its  mature 
years  as  a  permanent  party  of  opposition. 

As  Emerson  represents  the  first  tendency,  so  Dr.  Holmes,  in 


A    STONY  FIELD  67 

his  religious  phase,  might,  in  spite  of  his  sunny  geniahty,  stand 
for  the  second.  Here  we  have  full  culture,  the  kindly  spirit,  the 
enlightened  humanism.  But  there  is  also  a  tartrate  of  acrimony 
in  his  mental  reaction,  which  the  shghtest  suggestion  of  Calvin- 
ism immediately  precipitates.  One  drop,  and  the  hmpid  soul 
is  discolored  as  a  hogshead  of  water  into  which  falls  one  ten- 
thousandth  of  a  grain  of  cochineal.  To  the  New  England 
Unitarian,  Calvinism  is  as  an  August  thunder-storm.  It  sours 
in  his  breast  the  milk  of  human  kindness.  We  confess  it  is 
black,  foreboding ;  that  its  locks  threaten,  that  its  shafts  are 
terrible  in  their  majesty.  Yet  it  waters  the  thirsty  fields,  and 
has  (history  will  bear  us  out)  blessed  every  land  which  has  lain 
across  its  track,  even  though  it  has  turned  the  cream  in  the 
dairies  of  unbelief. 

The  attempts  made  by  those  of  this  connection  to  engage 
in  work  which  is  usually  considered  religious  have  been,  on 
the  whole,  unimportant.  Slight,  too,  have  been  the  efforts 
put  forth  by  them  to  reach  the  destitute,  ignorant,  helpless 
masses  of  the  American  cities.  No  missionaries  have  gone 
from  their  midst  to  preach  even  the  "  ethics  "  of  Jesus  to  the 
gloomy  heathenism  of  Asia  and  Africa.  Their  whole  propa- 
ganda has  been  one  of  disintegration  among  evangelical  Chris- 
tians, and  their  favorite  occupation  has  been  that  of  lashing 
the  dead  lion  of  Calvinism.  Parker,  Holmes,  Higginson, 
F.  E.  Abbott,  Bartol,  Clarke,  and  the  whole  Unitarian  pul- 
pit have  busied  themselves  in  conjuring  up  a  nightmare,  in 
which  Edwards  has  played  the  part  of  chief  ogre,  and  in  which 
Norton,  Cotton  Mather,  and  the  fathers  of  New  England 
Puritanism  have  been  made  to  act  as  the  terrible  and  ghastly 
supernumeraries  ;  predestination,  hell-fire,  and  original  sin  being 
their  gruesome  stage  properties. 

Ah,  well!  we  may  be  forgiven  when  we  hear  this  outcry 
against  that  sweet  soul,  that  massive  intellect,  that  Doctor 
Angelicus,  Jonathan  Edwards,  if  we  recall  a  remark  of  Heine's 


68  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

anent  the  romanticist  detractors  of  Luther.  "  The  ape  on  the 
giant's  shoulders  sees  farther  than  the  man  on  the  ground,"  he 
says.  We  may,  from  the  height  of  two  later  centuries,  have 
wider  outlooks  and  a  clearer  vision,  but  let  us  not  dare  to 
measure  ourselves  against  the  men  below. 

We  have  traced  cursorily  the  influence  and  tendency  of  the 
Unitarian-transcendental  movement.  This  influence  was 
deepened  and  strengthened  by  the  brilliant  place  which  the 
leaders  in  these  opinions  attained  in  the  contemporary  htera- 
ture.  It  was  a  season  of  unparalleled  efflorescence  in  the  in- 
tellectual life  of  New  England.  The  prestige  of  this  flowering 
time,  of  this  season  of  admirable  productivity  in  poetry  and 
pure  literature,  naturally  accrued,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
to  the  party  of  rehgious  revolt  and  of  philosophical  vagary. 

Their  authority  was  strengthened,  too,  by  the  noble  part 
which  as  a  body  they  played  in  the  antislavery  movement. 
One  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  devouring  indignation  against 
the  slavocracy  which  possessed  the  soul  of  Theodore  Parker 
did  more  to  commend  to  serious  people  the  interpretation  of 
Christianity  set  forth  by  him  each  Sunday  in  Music  Hall  than  a 
critical  and  sympathetic  study  of  the  New  Testament  possibly 
could.  Yet  the  historian  of  that  period  and  of  the  ideas  then 
ciu"rent  will  not  be  hkely  to  fall  into  the  mistake  of  supposing 
that  the  activity  in  reform  noticeable  in  the  careers  of  Parker, 
of  Lowell,  of  Samuel  May,  and  of  other  New  England  Uni- 
tarians, had  its  spring  in  the  negations  of  Unitarianism, 
much  less  in  the  essentially  unmoral  and  confused  ethics  of 
"  transcendentalism."  This  would  be  to  suppose  that  the  Hly 
blooming  in  the  midst  of  a  tangled  mass  of  weeds  grows  actu- 
ally upon  one  of  the  weed  stalks.  No  reasonable  man  will 
forget  that  these  were  the  children  of  the  Puritanism  which 
they  assaulted,  that  Emerson,  for  example,  was  by  birth  the 
eighth  in  a  series  of  Puritan  ministers.  That  their  moral 
courage  and  piety  were  largely  exotic,  we  now  know  who  com- 


A    STONY  FIELD  69 

pare  the  work  of  Unitarianism,  in  the  purely  humanitarian  lines 
which  it  preaches,  with  that  of  such  strange,  bizarre,  yet  es- 
sentially evangelical  agencies  as  the  Salvation  Army,  We  are 
not  unfaithful  to  the  truth  in  asserting  that  the  advantage  lies 
altogether  with  those  who  are  without  the  social  prestige,  the 
wealth,  the  great  traditions,  but  who  are  empowered  by  the 
very  Spirit  of  God. 

A  community  dominated  by  a  party  of  this  sort,  full  of  pride 
in  its  career  of  unbelief,  full  of  bitterness  against  its  oppo- 
nents, ever  assaulting  and  aspersing  and  pelting  with  catchwords 
those  who  still  preached  the  gospel  in  its  fullness,  was  not  by 
any  means  an  easy  place  in  which  to  undertake  religious  work. 
The  infiltration  from  above  of  this  weak  rationalism,  of  this 
insipid  humanity-worship,  among  the  thoughtless  newspaper- 
reading  elements  in  the  community  popularized,  while  dilut- 
ing, the  current  opinions.  A  pastor  visiting  among  people 
would  find  everywhere  the  objections  to  the  revelation  of  God 
in  Christ  which  Cambridge  and  Boston  made,  only  stripped 
of  the  glitter,  the  garnish,  the  attractiveness  with  which  the 
educated  had  clothed  them.  Thus  among  all  classes  the  tend- 
encies were,  to  a  great  extent,  away  from  evangelical  Chris- 
tianity. The  tide  was  running  out  fast.  Only  strong  men 
could  stand  on  their  feet  and  resist  its  flow. 


Ill 

The  church  which  Gordon  was  entering  for  a  quarter-cen- 
tury's incessant  work  was,  from  some  points  of  view,  the  most 
important  of  the  denomination  in  Boston.  It  was  a  "family  " 
church  of  an  approved  type,  somewhat  exclusive,  with  a  gen- 
erous sprinkling  of  rich  men  in  its  pews.  It  was  a  church  in 
which  the  line  of  separation  between  the  Haves  and  the  Have- 
nots,  so  fatal  to  the  best  type  of  church  development,  was 
defined  with  more  or  less  conscientiousness.     The  optimates^ 


70  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  "  nice "  people,  the  "  best "  people,  were  distinctly  in 
evidence.  A  line  of  substantial  merchants  and  bankers  ran 
up  and  down  the  ends  of  the  most  desirable  pews.  If  you 
had  gone  in  any  Sunday  morning,  you  would  have  seen  well- 
dressed  ladies  and  gentlemen,  singly  or  in  groups,  passing 
down  the  center  aisles  to  their  seats.  The  more  common  folk 
in  the  fringe  of  gallery  and  rear  seats  were,  as  befits  the  outer 
edge  of  a  parterre,  in  more  subdued  dress.  Numerous  car- 
riages at  the  doors  lent  a  pleasant  suggestion  of  capitahsm  to 
the  exterior  of  the  church. 

The  choir-loft  was  "a  nest  of  singing-birds."  One  of 
the  foremost  American  organists  sat  at  the  keyboard  of  the 
great  new  instrument.  The  music  was  faultless  and  severely 
classical.  The  preludes  of  Baptiste,  the  offertories  of  Barnby, 
the  rapturous  anthems  of  Stainer  and  of  Berthold  Tours,  seem 
indissolubly  connected  with  those  old,  cold,  correct,  formal 
days  of  fashionable  Clarendon  Street. 

It  was  indeed  a  church  of  a  well-defined  and  easily  recog- 
nized type — a  church  which  has  its  counterpart  in  every  city 
of  Protestant  Christendom.  It  summarized,  as  all  of  its  class, 
the  admirable  traits  of  Protestantism— comfort,  order,  inteUi- 
gence,  affluence,  reserve,  a  not  too  aggressive  rehgiousness. 
A  church  of  this  sort  may  be  called  the  Church  of  the  Disci- 
ples, the  Church  of  the  Covenanters,  the  Church  of  the  Pil- 
grims. A  more  nearly  correct  and  more  modernized  sobriquet 
would  be,  perhaps,  the  Church  of  the  Bank  Presidents.  And 
why  not?  Do  we  Americans  not  believe  that  MontecuccuH's 
three  conditions  for  the  prosecution  of  successful  warfare- 
first,  money ;  second,  money  ;  third,  money— are  alone  indis- 
pensable in  every  other  form  of  activity,  social,  commercial, 
religious? 

This  was  the  apprehension,  evidently,  of  many  who  attended 
the  church  in  Clarendon  Street  during  the  early  seventies. 
The  feeling  of  exclusiveness  congealed  finally  into  a  condition 


A   STOJVV  FIELD  71 

of  things  akin  in  some  degree  to  that  prevailing  in  close  cor- 
porations with  elected  membership.  An  officer  of  the  church 
was  rebuked  by  one  of  the  deacons  for  attaching  the  words 
"  strangers  welcome  "  to  some  circulars  for  public  distribution. 
The  theory  which  prevailed,  apparently,  was  that  which,  in 
the  field  of  economics,  goes  under  the  name  of  Gresham's 
Law.  Base  metal  will  drive  out  better  currency ;  people  of 
humble  social  status  will  scare  away  the  more  "  desirable " 
families.     The  result  may  easily  be  imagined. 

The  severely  facetious  title  of  "  The  Saints'  Everlasting 
Rest,"  commonly  applied  to  the  church  by  outsiders,  was 
perhaps  not  altogether  undeserved. 

Years  after,  the  young  man  who  was  now  entering  on  his 
pastorate  here  wrote  of  just  such  churches :  "  Ecclesiastical 
corpses  lie  all  about  us.  The  caskets  in  which  they  repose 
are  lined  with  satin ;  they  are  decorated  with  solid  silver 
handles  and  with  abundant  flowers,  and,  like  other  caskets, 
they  are  just  large  enough  for  their  occupants,  with  no  room 
for  strangers.  These  churches  have  died  of  respectability 
and  are  embalmed  in  complacency."  His  own  church  was 
not,  however,  beyond  resuscitation.  For  years  he  worked  on 
it,  turned  it  over  and  over,  smote  it  mercifully  severe  blows, 
rubbed  it  back  and  forth,  refused  to  listen  to  its  protests,  to 
its  demand  that  it  might  be  left  to  die  in  peace.  And  his 
reward  was  to  see  it,  in  his  own  closing  days,  the  ruddiest, 
healthiest  church  in  the  city,  bending  all  its  strength  for  the 
salvation  of  others. 

In  1890,  reviewing  his  twenty  years'  pastorate,  Dr.  Gordon 
remarked  ; 

"  We  beheve  we  have  learned  much,  through  divine  teach- 
ing, as  to  the  true  method  of  conducting  the  affairs  of  God's 
church ;  have  proved  by  experience  the  practicability  of  what 
we  have  learned ;  and  have  largely  united  the  church  in  the 
practice  thereof.     I?inovations  have  from  the  beginning  been 


72  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Strongly  urged.  'Innovations'?  No!  that  word  implies  new- 
ness ;  and  God  is  our  witness  that  in  theology,  in  worship,  and 
in  church  administration  it  is  not  the  new  to  which  we  have 
been  inclined,  but  the  old.  Refiovatiofi,  rather,  is  what  we 
have  sought.  With  a  deep  feeling  that  many  of  the  usages 
which  have  been  fastened  upon  our  churches  by  long  tradition 
constitute  a  serious  barrier  to  spiritual  success,  it  has  been  my 
steady  aim  to  remove  these.  In  general,  we  may  say,  it  is  our 
strong  conviction  that  true  success  in  the  church  of  Christ  is 
to  be  attained  by  spiritual,  not  by  secular,  methods  ;  by  a  wor- 
ship which  promotes  self-denial  in  God's  people,  and  not  by 
that  which  ministers  to  self-gratification;  by  a  cultivation  of 
the  heart  through  diligent  use  of  the  Word  and  of  prayer,  and 
not  by  a  cultivation  of  art  through  music  and  architecture  and 
ritual.  And  wi  h  the  most  deliberate  emphasis  we  can  say 
that  every  step  in  our  return  to  simpler  and  more  scriptural 
methods  of  church  service  has  proved  an  onward  step  toward 
spiritual  efficiency  and  success." 

His  whole  ministry,  then,  faced  backward— away  from  the 
pitiable  modern  devices  and  schemes  and  substitutes,  to  "  that 
higher,  holier,  earlier,  purer  church,"  from  which  we  are  ever 
departing,  and  to  which  we  must  ever  return  if  we  are  to  live. 


CHAPTER  V 


FOR    SPIRITUAL   WORSHIP 


The  true  aim  of  a  church — Congregational  singing — "  The  Service  of 
Song"  —  Extracts  from  sermons  on  the  worship  of  the  church — The 
consummation  of  this  reform 

AS  the  reforms  which  reclaimed  this  church  extended  over 
JTjl.  many  years,  we  shall  be  obliged  to  treat  them  in  order 
as  they  were  suggested  and  consummated.  The  idea  of  a 
church  which  must  be  first  developed  is  that  of  a  hospital. 
It  is  properly,  to  use  the  old  English  phrase,  a  "  cure  "  for 
souls.  This  conception,  so  alien  to  the  early  hfe  of  Clarendon 
Street,  was  one  of  the  best  fruits  of  the  Moody  meetings  of 
'77,  held  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  The  entrance  of  reformed 
drunkards,  and  of  all  types  of  publicans  and  sinners,  into 
membership  opened  the  way  for  a  progressive  democratization 
culminating  in  the  free-church  system.  Again,  with  the  agita- 
tion for  world-wide  missions  the  next  most  important  function 
of  a  local  church  began  to  be  emphasized ;  namely,  that  of 
entrepot  and  recruiting-station  for  the  collection  of  munition 
and  the  enlistment  of  recruits  for  foreign  service.  How  well 
the  duties  along  this  line  came  to  be  fulfilled  we  shall  see 
further  on.  The  reform  which  claimed  the  earliest  attention 
of  the  new  pastor,  however,  was  in  the  worship  of  the  chiuch. 
For  these  changes  he  prayed  and  worked  incessantly.  Dur- 
ing fifteen  years  preconceived  opinions  and  prejudices  stood 
out  against  his  patient  efforts ;  then  they  gave  way,  to  his 
great  joy  and  to  the  general  satisfaction. 

73 


H  Adoniram  Jl'bsoN  GOkbON- 

For  long  years  Dr.  Gordon's  unwavering  advocacy  of  coft» 
gregational  music  seemed  to  his  people  an  unaccountable  eccen- 
tricity-, the  One  hobby  from  which  he  never  would  dismount. 
^'  Is  it  not  necessary,"  they  used  to  say,  "  for  the  success  of 
any  well-ordered  church  that  the  choir  should  be  of  the  most 
select  and  well-trained  sort  ? "  The  outside  world,  so  ran 
their  theory,  must  be  drawn  inside  the  church  walls  by  the 
sound  of  voluntary  and  anthem.  When  within,  the  preacher 
has  his  opportunity.  Why  should  a  sportsman  throw  away 
his  decoy-ducks?  Why  should  a  pastor  attempt  to  operate 
without  the  aids  which  his  people  furnish  freely  for  the  further- 
ance of  his  work? 

Such  was  the  argument,  with  all  the  collateral  pleas  for 
high  musical  standards  in  a  church  of  its  rank.  It  was  for- 
gotten that  the  only  condition  which  the  new  minister  had 
made  in  accepting  this  charge  was  the  disuse  of  what  he 
called  the  ice-chest,  i.e.,  the  quartet  gallery,  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  hearty  singing  by  the  whole  congregation  for  the  dele- 
gated worship  there  carried  on. 

In  these  days  of  substantial  hymnaries,  not  to  speak  of  the 
endlessly  issued  gospel  hymns — hymns  which  in  the  morning 
spring  up  and  flourish,  and  in  the  evening  are  cut  down  and 
wither  —  congregational  singing  seems  a  perfectly  natural 
institution.  A  generation  ago,  however,  the  prevailing  hymn- 
books  were  of  such  a  dry,  jejune,  characterless  description 
that  the  wonder  is  men  and  women  ever  sang  at  all.  It  was 
an  era  of  lugubrious  tunes,  of  which  "  China,"  "  Devizes,"  and 
"  Kentucky "  are  fairly  representative.  Lowell  Mason  still 
ruled  with  autocratic  sway  over  church  collections.  The 
obvious  thing,  accordingly,  for  any  one  who  wanted  to  encour- 
age general  participation  in  worship  was,  first  of  all,  to  furnish 
an  acceptable,  thoroughly  modern  collection  of  hymns  and 
tunes.  This  Gordon  attempted  to  do.  The  "Service  of 
Song,"  which  he  edited  with  much  labor  and  evident  taste, 


FOR  SPIRITUAL  Worship  75 

became  for  many  years  a  standard  hymnal  for  Baptist 
churches,  and  was  the  text-book  from  which  he  first  taught 
his  own  people  to  sing. 

The  next  thing  was  to  instruct  his  people  in  their  plain 
duties  in  the  worship  of  the  church.  This  was  done  admirably 
in  a  series  of  sermons.  The  whole  subject  in  all  its  features 
— singing,  responsive  reading,  giving,  and  "the  ministry  of 
silence" — was  discussed  with  acuteness  and  fervid  scriptural- 
ness.  To  give  an  idea  of  his  purpose,  and  of  his  conception 
of  what  a  service  should  be  in  a  church  with  the  New  Testa- 
ment motive,  the  following  extracts  from  these  sermons  are 
introduced : 

"  We  are  of  the  conviction  that  we  have  been  tending  en- 
tirely in  the  direction  of  ritualism  (in  its  essential  error  of  sub- 
stituting priest  for  people)  in  allowing  our  praise  to  be  rendered 
vicariously  by  quartet  choirs,  and  our  praying  to  be  done 
largely  for  us  by  the  minister  instead  of  joining  in  it  our- 
selves. .  .   . 

"  There  are  two  classes  of  offenders  in  this  matter  of  the 
worship  of  song :  those  who,  having  a  good  voice,  do  not  sing 
with  the  heart,  and  those  who,  having  a  good  heart,  do  not 
sing  with  the  voice ;  and  the  latter  is  not  the  least  culpable. 
For  one  who  loves  God  and  adores  Jesus  Christ  to  sit  silent 
when  their  praises  are  sung,  keeping  time  to  the  melody  only 
with  the  muffled  beating  of  the  heart,  ought  to  be  considered 
almost  an  affront  to  the  Most  High.   .   .  . 

"  How  the  expression,  '  sacrifice  of  praise,'  strikes  at  the 
idea  of  mere  self-indulgence  in  the  service  of  song!  How  it 
stamps  with  the  brand  of  sacrilege  our  modern  habit  of  regal- 
ing our  ears  with  choice  dainties  of  musical  performance,  and 
caUing  it  worship!  To  whom  was  the  sacrifice  offered  of 
old,  to  the  people  or  to  God?  I  need  not  answer  the  ques- 
tion. To  whom  is  the  sacrifice  of  praise  presented  in  many 
of  our  modern  sanctuaries?     To  the  people,  if  the  truth  is 


76  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

told.  It  is  fitted  up  to  satisfy  their  taste,  the  incense  of  its 
melody  wafted  toward  their  ears.  It  finds  its  end  in  minister- 
ing to  their  pleasure.  They  sit  down  and  Hsten  to  it  exactly 
as  though  its  whole  aim  were  their  delectation.  .  .  . 

"  God  would  not  have  been  pleased  if  the  Israelite  had 
gone  to  his  neighbor's  flock  for  a  lamb  because,  forsooth,  he 
might  find  one  there  that  was  whiter  and  more  comely.  And 
neither  will  Christ  be  pleased  now  if  we  borrow  another's 
voice  to  utter  our  praises  for  his  redeeming  love,  however 
exquisite  and  beautiful  that  voice  may  be.  The  offering  must 
be  taken  out  of  the  flock  which  he  purchased  with  his  own 
blood.  Let  us  offer  the  sacrifice  of  praise ;  that  is,  the  fruit 
of  our  lips.   .   .   . 

"  You  have  noticed  the  fountains  on  the  Common,  with 
the  water  running  so  noiselessly  through  iron  lips,  which  can 
neither  taste  its  sweetness  nor  be  refreshed  by  its  coolness. 
And  every  Lord's  day,  in  some  of  our  churches,  the  most 
limpid  strains  of  melody  flow  through  lips  that  are  just  as 
oblivious  to  their  import  and  just  as  unaffected  by  their  sen- 
timent as  those  lips  of  iron.  How  many  times  are  the  words, 
'  Come,  Holy  Spirit,'  sung  with  no  sense  of  longing  for  the 
blessed  Comforter,  with  no  apprehension  of  his  holy  mission, 
with  no  belief,  indeed,  in  his  divine  personality!  And  what 
more  direct  and  obvious  method  of  violating  the  command- 
ment,'  Grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit,' is  possible  than  this?  .  .   . 

"  Men,  like  coals,  kindle  best  in  the  mass.  Each  serves  as 
a  radiator  to  throw  heat  upon  his  neighbor,  and  so  the  zeal  of 
the  whole  is  quickly  raised.  But  let  each  worshiper  be  only 
a  dull  absorbent  of  the  warmth  that  is  thrown  upon  him  from 
Scripture,  sermon,  prayer,  and  hymn,  and  the  preacher  will 
find  it  a  very  onerous  task  to  get  the  people  into  a  devotional 
frame.  Now  singing  is  a  means  of  spiritual  radiation ;  truth 
and  love  and  fervor  are  easily  contagious  when  it  is  the  me- 
dium of  intercourse.     What  minister  cannot  feel  the  difference 


FOR  SPIRITUAL    WORSHIP  77 

in  the  touch  of  a  congregation  that  has  risen  just  before  the 
sermon  and  poured  itself  out  in  an  inspiring  and  hearty  hymn 
of  praise,  from  that  of  a  rehgious  audience  that  has  been  quietly 
sitting  and  listening  to  a  musical  performance?  There  is  a 
kind  of  spiritual  elasticity  in  the  former  case  which  gives  the 
preacher's  words  back  to  him  in  a  responsive  echo  very  differ- 
ent from  that  dull  thud  which  comes  from  dropping  a  sermon 
into  a  listless  and  silent  company  of  hearers.   .   .   . 

"  To  know  by  subtle  intuition  when  you  pray  that  faithful 
souls  are  pressing  round  you,  to  second  your  desires  and  swell 
the  volume  of  your  intercessions,  is  a  blessed  thing ;  but  to 
be  assured  of  this  by  the  audible  response  of  a  multitude  of 
voices  is  wonderfully  strengthening.  Yet  from  the  unhappy 
custom— a  custom  that  bears  the  stamp  of  an  easy  undevout- 
ness— into  which  worshipers  have  so  largely  fallen,  of  listen- 
ing to  the  public  supplications  instead  of  joining  in  them,  how 
often  is  the  minister  compelled  to  say  to  himself,  after  strug- 
gling in  the  pangs  of  unattended  prayer,  '  I  have  trodden  the 
wine-press  alone;  and  of  the  people  there  was  none  with 
me'!    ... 

"  Hear  the  summons  to  prayer  which  is  given  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews :  '  Brethren,  let  us  draw  near.'  ...  It  is  not, 
'  Let  me  draw  near  in  your  behalf,  as  your  minister  and  mouth- 
piece;' but,  'Let  us  draw  near.'  Of  course  the  summons 
ought  to  be  the  same  to-day,  since  the  priesthood  of  believers 
in  Christ  is  an  unchangeable  priesthood.  Now,  if  the  people 
simply  sit  still  in  their  places  during  this  exercise,  without  a 
single  change  of  attitude,  without  a  gesture  of  reverence, 
without  an  utterance  of  the  voice,  without  a  single  according 
'  Amen '  at  the  end,  do  they  not  look  more  like  Jews  waiting 
without  than  like  purged  Christian  worshipers  entering  in 
before  the  throne  of  grace?  And  when  the  pastor  stands  up 
alone  without  a  sound  or  token  of  attendance  with  him  on 
the  part  of  the  flock,  and  shuts  his  eyes  and  so  draws  the  cur- 


78  ADONIRAM  JUDSOM  GOkDON 

tain  between  himself  and  the  congregation,  and  enters  into 
solitude  while  he  pleads  with  God — the  first  salutation  that 
greets  him  on  his  return  being  the  subdued  strains  of  the 
organ — does  he  not  look  too  much  like  the  high  priest  enter- 
ing within  the  veil,  and  ministering  by  himself  till  the  tinkling 
of  the  sacred  bells  announces  his  return  to  the  waiting  con- 
gregation? .  .  . 

"  Whether  it  be  true  or  not  physically,  as  has  been  asserted, 
that  the  striking  and  collision  of  sounds  in  the  atmosphere 
can  generate  electricity,  the  spiritual  fact  is  unquestionable. 
There  is  a  marvelous  magnetism  in  the  blending  and  colliding 
of  a  multitude  of  voices  in  a  great  congregation.  Nothing 
can  compare  with  it  as  an  incitement  to  religious  enthusiasm ; 
nothing  can  take  its  place  as  a  means  of  stirring  and  main- 
taining a  universal  interest  in  public  services.  Now  concerted 
reading  is  the  simplest  form  of  vocal  worship.  Some  may 
complain  that  they  have  not  the  voice  for  singing,  and  others 
that  they  have  not  the  training  to  follow  the  simplest  melody 
of  music ;  but  none  but  the  dumb  or  utterly  unlettered  can 
say  that  they  cannot  join  in  the  audible  reading  of  the  Psalms. 
Here,  then,  is  an  exercise,  scriptural  and  primitive  in  its  char- 
acter, that  can  enlist  every  worshiper,  that  can  draw  in  every 
voice  in  the  assembly  to  swell  and  deepen  the  current  of  de- 
votion. .  .  . 

"  I  know  all  that  can  be  said  of  the  danger  of  formality  in 
our  Lord's  day  worship ;  but  formahty  belongs  no  more  to 
thoughtless  utterance  than  to  thoughtless  repression,  to  vain 
repetition  than  to  vain  silence.  Indeed,  the  constant  peril  of 
non-participation  in  religious  worship  is  that  indecorous  in- 
attention, that  worst  kind  of  formalism,  may  become  habit- 
ual.  .   .   . 

"  We  have  never  been  more  sensibly  impressed  than  by  a 
half-hour's  still  meditation  around  the  table  of  the  Lord. 
There  are  not  only  thoughts  in  us  too  deep  for  utterance,  but 


FOR   SPIRITUAL    WORSHIP  79 

thoughts  which  are  repressed  and  drowned  by  another's  utter- 
ance. 'To  everything  there  is  a  season,'  says  the  Preacher, 
'  and  a  time  to  every  purpose  under  heaven  ' — 'a  time  to  keep 
silence,  and  a  time  to  speak.'  So  then,  while  we  are  seeking 
for  ministers  who  have  a  great  gift  for  speaking,  commend 
us  also  to  those  of  whom  it  can  be  said,  as  of  a  famous 
Frenchman,  that  they  have  a  great  talent  for  silence.  Even 
in  the  ordinance  of  worship,  which  is  especially  for  preaching 
and  prayer,  we  have  often  wished  that  we  could  make  greater 
use  of  the  ministry  of  silence.  But  the  organ  and  choir  are 
great,  and  they  have  prevailed.  We  have  no  sooner  uttered 
our  '  Amen '  than  there  comes  a  response ;  it  may  be  from  the 
organ,  or  from  the  quartet,  but  we  confess  it  always  seems  in- 
trusive and  distracting.  It  takes  the  thoughts  away  from 
what  has  been  said,  appeals  to  our  musical  taste,  if  we  have 
any,  setting  us  either  to  admiring  or  criticizing,  or,  if  we  have 
no  music  in  our  souls,  makes  us  impatient.  'A  response'? 
Yes ;  but  we  were  praying  to  God,  and  wanted  a  moment  of 
stillness  to  see  if  we  could  not  hear  a  response  from  the 
throne.  We  had  been  shutting  our  eyes  that  we  might  thereby 
the  more  completely  shut  ourselves  in  with  God ;  we  had  been 
turning  our  ears  away  from  earth's  distracting  noises  that  we 
might  open  them  to  the  Lord,  and  were  saying,  '  Speak,  Lord ; 
for  thy  servant  heareth;'  and  before  we  have  had  time  to 
hear  the  divine  voice  in  our  soul,  the  vox  hum  ana  stop  has 
broken  in  upon  us,  and  music,  with  its  voluptuous  swell,  has 
rushed  into  the  place  where  we  were  carrying  on  the  sacrifice 
of  praise. 

"  A  full  minute  of  silence  after  prayer,  of  absolute  congre- 
gational stillness — we  have  enjoyed  it  in  one  or  two  churches 
where  we  have  worshiped,  and  have  never  forgotten  the  im- 
pression. '  Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am  God.'  When  shall 
we  learn  that  God  is  not  in  the  wind  of  an  organ-bellows,  or 
in  the  fire  of  exciting  halleluiahs,  but  in  the  still,  small  voice? 


8o  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

And  then,  after  the  sermon,  is  apt  to  come  another  burst  of 
violence  against  the  kingdom  of  silence.  If  perchance  the 
Spirit  has  helped  us  to  make  a  serious  impression  upon  our 
hearers,  we  wish  so  much  that  we  could  send  them  away  with 
nothing  to  disturb  that  impression.  But  alas!  who  has  not 
heard  it?  The  organ  with  all  its  stops  breaks  out,  like  many 
bulls  of  Bashan.  The  seed  of  the  Word  has  been  sown,  but 
cannot  be  let  alone.  A  wild  flock  of  quavers  burst  their  cage 
in  the  organ-loft,  and,  like  birds  of  the  air,  alight  upon  the 
hearers  to  catch  away  that  which  was  sown  in  the  heart.  Who 
that  has  been  present  does  not  remember  the  gracious  silence 
with  which  the  sermon  in  Mr,  Spurgeon's  tabernacle  closes? 
The  people  go  away  with  the  word  of  warning  and  exhorta- 
tion and  hope  as  the  last  sound  that  fell  upon  their  hearts. 
They  march  out  to  the  muffled  beatings  of  a  conscience  ac- 
cusing or  else  excusing,  not  to  the  tripping  music  of  an  organ. 
Oh,  the  power  of  silence!" 

The  fruits  of  this  teaching  were  not  yet.  The  preacher  had 
turned  the  dry  turf  over,  and  thrown  the  seed  of  better  things 
into  the  furrow.  But  years  of  instruction  and  of  waiting  passed 
before  the  important  change  in  church  worship  which  he 
sought  was  consummated.  For  years  music  committees  met 
and  jangled  and  voted  money  and  received  meekly  the  gratu- 
itous criticisms  of  the  church  community.  Quartet  succeeded 
quartet  like  the  passing  birds  of  passing  seasons.  Gradually, 
however,  opinions  changed,  and  the  pastor's  plan  became  the 
people's  policy.  If  one  who  had  known  the  church  in  the 
seventies  should  enter  it  in  the  nineties,  what  a  transformation 
in  its  worship  he  would  observe!  What  a  volume  of  sound 
in  the  singing!  How  it  fills  the  nooks  and  corners  of  the 
church,  as  the  full,  swollen  tide  fills  with  its  back-water  the 
creeks  and  inlets  of  the  coast !  All  are  singing  now,  heartily, 
as  unto  the  Lord,  with  an  interested,  worshipful  spontaneity, 
very  different  from  the  lassitude  of  the  old  time,  when  to  sit  still 


FOR  Sri RITUAL    WORSHIP  8 1 

on  the  cushions  and  listen  to  trios  from  Mendelssohn  or  to 
the  performance  of  fugues  and  contrapuntal  etudes  on  the 
organ  was  the  ideal  of  worship.  God  is  not  praised  by  the 
stagnant  pool.  But  here  the  floods  have  hfted  up  their  voice, 
and  the  languid  congregational  singing,  with  its  omission  of 
half  the  stanzas  of  the  hymn,  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past.  To 
hear  the  counterpart  of  such  singing  you  must  go  to  the 
Lutheran  churches  of  Prussia  or  Saxony,  and  listen  to  the 
common  people  as  they  sing  the  chorals  of  Paul  Gerhardt. 


CHAPTER  VI 


WHERE    THE    ROOTS    FED 


"  In  Christ "  published— Private  conferences  for  Bible  study— Books 
which  had  a  formative  influence  on  Dr.  Gordon's  ministry — Contact 
with  Brethrenism — The  mission  of  this  sect — In  Europe,  1877 — Esti- 
mate of  preachers  heard  abroad 

SOON  after  coming  to  Boston,  Gordon  published  a  remark- 
able study  in  the  identities  of  Christ  and  the  believer.  "  In 
Christ "  was  the  fruit  of  much  deep  meditation,  the  distillation 
of  many  late  hours  in  the  Jamaica  Plain  manse.  It  is,  per- 
haps, the  most  nearly  perfect  in  form  and  content  of  any  of 
his  works,  quintessential  in  its  compression,  rich,  finished,  and 
imbued  with  mysticism,  the  mysticism  of  the  New  Testament. 
Such  pages  as  these  A  Kempis  or  the  Friends  of  God  might 
have  written.  How  refreshing  this  profoundly  penetrating 
interpretation  after  the  shallow  syncretisms  and  nonchalant 
denials  of  New  England  Unitarianism!  It  stands  out  to  one, 
working  through  the  arid  mass  of  the  local  religious  literature 
of  its  day,  like  a  green  spot,  with  feathery  palms  and  tinkling 
springs,  in  a  choking  expanse  of  unfruitful,  limitless  sand. 

The  Pauline  phrases,  "created  in  Christ,"  "crucified  with 
Christ,"  "risen  with  Christ,"  "baptized  into  Christ,"  "sancti- 
fied in  Christ,"  "the  dead  in  Christ,"  are  taken  as  melodic 
themes  upon  which  to  work  out  the  variations  of  a  sober, 
fruitful  exposition.  Unitarianism  made  of  Christ  a  mere  pat- 
tern. This  volume  exhibits  him  as  an  indwelling  principle, 
incorporating  itself  in  the  believer  and  eradicating  the  old  will, 

82 


WHERE    THE  ROOTS  FED  83 

the  old  personality.  Through  its  action  the  former  life  is 
doomed  to  drop  off  and  disappear  as  a  scab,  beneath  which 
the  new,  wholesome  flesh  is  forming.  There  are  accordingly 
two  eras  in  the  life  of  the  Christian.  The  one  Paul  describes 
as  the  time  "  when  we  were  in  the  flesh  " ;  the  other  is  the 
true  Anno  Domini,  the  period  of  our  life  in  Christ. 

The  significant  fact  of  this  new  epoch  in  our  history  is  the 
presence  of  Christ  in  the  heart.  Without  this,  man  cannot  be 
joined  to  God  any  more  than  steel  can  be  welded  without  the 
flux  of  borax.  "  We  cannot  be  loved  of  God  apart  from 
Christ,  for  the  divine  approval  can  go  out  only  to  that  which 
is  worthy.  Neither  can  we  be  condemned  if  we  are  in  Christ, 
for  the  divine  disapprobation  can  fall  only  upon  what  is  sin- 
ful, and  he  is  without  sin."  *  In  prayer  oiu:  acceptance  is 
determined  by  the  same  nexus.  If  Christ's  will  covers,  inter- 
penetrates, and  absorbs  our  will,  there  can  be  no  conflict  be- 
tween our  prayer  and  the  sovereign  wishes  of  God.  "  We 
can  come  with  boldness  as  being  in  him  '  that  liveth  and  was 
dead,'  and,  being  'dead  with  him,'  we  shall  be  careful  to 
bring  that  only  required  sacrifice  of  the  Christian  covenant,  a 
crucified  will."  t     Thus  Christ  prays  through  us. 

Again,  "  since  Christ  and  his  attributes  never  part  company, 
it  is  impossible  to  be  made  in  him  without  being  made  into 
all  that  belongs  to  him."  \  Here  is  the  earnest  of  our  sancti- 
fication.  But  "  though  this  grace  is  conferred  on  each  Chris- 
tian as  soon  as  he  believes,  it  is  nevertheless  a  gift  held  on 
deposit,  'hid  with  Christ  in  God,'  to  be  drawn  on  through 
daily  communion  and  gradual  apprehension."  § 

Finally,  the  affinities  thus  created  by  union  with  Christ  se- 
cure to  his  own  the  immortality  which  is  his.  "  They  that 
sleep  in  Jesus  "  have  that  in  them  which  will  respond  to  the 
resurrection  summons  as  steel  filings  to  the  sweep  of  the  mag- 

*  "  In  Christ,"  p.  119.  f  Ibid.,  p.  142. 

%  Ibid.,  p.  168.  $  Ibid.,  p.  170. 


84  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

net  above  them.  Then  the  identity  of  Hfe  with  Christ  will 
have  been  attained  through  an  identity  of  experience. 

These  first  years  in  Boston  were  years  of  study  and  of 
spiritual  exercise.  Private  conferences  were  held  semi-monthly 
in  Gordon's  house  for  the  consideration  of  the  deeper  themes 
of  scriptural  teaching.  Associated  with  him  in  these  studies 
were  W.  R.  Nicholson,  then  rector  of  St.  Paul's,  and  now 
bishop  in  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church,  Mr.  George  C. 
Needham,  Dr.  H.  M.  Parsons,  and  others.  The  reading  upon 
which  he  fed  included  such  books  as  Gurnall's  "  Christian 
Armor,"  Charnock's  "  Wisdom  of  our  Fathers,"  and  the  body 
of  Puritan  divinity  generally.  "  It  seems  to  me,"  he  writes, 
"that  the  Puritan  ministers  held  together  both  sides  of  the 
truth,  and  preserved  their  balance  to  a  remarkable  degree. 
They  expounded  most  clearly  the  objective  work  of  Christ, 
and  they  also  unfolded  his  subjective  work  with  a  minuteness 
and  a  depth  of  insight  quite  beyond  anything  we  witness  in 
our  day.  They  wrote  thus  clearly  because  they  had  appre- 
hended these  things  by  a  profound  interior  experience.  What 
tide-marks  do  the  diaries  and  meditations  which  these  good 
men  left  furnish  of  the  heights  to  which  the  Spirit's  floods 
rose  in  their  souls!  We  have  a  great  lesson  to  learn  of  them 
concerning  the  culture  of  the  inner  life." 

Among  other  books  of  which  he  was  especially  fond  were 
Van  Oosterzee's  "  Person  and  Work  of  the  Redeemer,"  Vinet's 
"  Outlines  of  Theology,"  Alford's  works,  the  "  Horae  Apoc- 
alypticse  "  of  EUiott,  Edersheim's  "  Sketches  of  Jewish  Life," 
the  journals  of  Eugenie  de  Guerin,  Uhlhorn's  "  Conflict  of 
Christianity  with  Paganism  " ;  the  poems  of  Henry  Vaughn, 
of  Herbert,  of  Quarles,  and  of  Donne ;  the  works  of  Rothe,  of 
R.  Stier,  of  Birks,  of  Flavel,  of  Archer  Butler,  of  Westcott,  of 
Guinness,  of  Harnack ;  the  lives  of  Joseph  AUeine,  of  Robert 
Moffatt,  of  John  Woolman,  of  Henry  Martyn,  and  of  David 
Brainerd.     The  career  of  the  last  named  exerted  a  powerful 


WHERE    THE  ROOTS  FED  85 

and  lasting  influence  upon  him.  Years  after,  in  describing  a 
visit  paid  to  Brainerd's  grave,  he  writes : 

''Does  it  savor  of  saint-worship  or  superstition  to  be  thus 
exploring  old  graveyards,  wading  through  snow-drifts,  and 
deciphering  ancient  headstones  on  a  cold  day  in  midwinter? 
Perhaps  so,  on  the  face  of  it ;  but  let  us  justify  our  conduct. 
What  if  the  writer  confesses  that  he  has  never  received  such 
spiritual  impulse  from  any  other  human  being  as  from  him  whose 
body  has  lain  now  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  under  that 
Northampton  slab?  For  many  years  an  old  and  worn  volume 
of  his  life  and  journals  has  lain  upon  my  study  table,  and  no 
season  has  passed  without  a  renewed  pondering  of  its  precious 
contents,  '  If  you  would  make  men  think  well  of  you,  make 
them  think  well  of  themselves,'  is  the  maxim  of  Lord  Chester- 
field, which  he  regarded  as  embodying  the  highest  worldly 
wisdom.  On  the  contrary,  the  preacher  and  witness  for 
Christ  who  makes  us  think  meanly  of  ourselves  is  the  one  who 
does  us  most  good,  and  ultimately  wins  our  hearts.  This  is 
exactly  the  effect  which  the  reading  of  Brainerd's  memoirs 
has  on  one.  Humiliation  succeeds  humiliation  as  we  read 
on.  'How  little  have  I  prayed!  how  low  has  been  my 
standard  of  consecration!'  is  the  irresistible  exclamation;  and 
when  we  shut  the  book  we  are  not  praising  Brainerd,  but  con- 
demning ourselves,  and  resolving  that,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
we  will  follow  Christ  more  closely  in  the  future." 

We  should  not,  in  summing  up  the  influences  which  shaped 
Dr.  Gordon's  religious  and  theological  opinions,  omit  those  re- 
sulting from  his  contact  with  Brethrenism.  In  an  interesting 
survey  of  the  religious  upheavals  of  the  century,  he  describes 
the  two  movements,  Tractarianism  and  Brethrenism,  which, 
emanating  from  a  common  source,  have  affected  so  power- 
fully, yet  so  differently,  the  Christian  life  of  England.  After 
noting  the  important  places  which  universities  have  occupied 
in  religious  movements  generally,  and  after  contrasting  the 


86  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

opposite  courses  which  Darby,  in  Dublin  University,  and 
Newman,  in  Oxford,  took  in  their  revolt  against  the  current 
religious  apathy  in  the  Church  of  England,  he  calls  attention 
to  the  insignificant  contributions  which  the  Tractarian  reac- 
tionaries have  made  to  bibhcal  interpretation,  as  compared 
with  the  extraordinary  productivity  of  Brethrenism.  The 
Tractarian  party  left  two  works  of  exegesis — Pusey's  "  Daniel 
and  the  Minor  Prophets  "  and  Keble's  "  Metrical  Version  of 
the  Psalms" — which  barely  pass  the  line  of  mediocrity. 
"  But  if  we  turn  to  the  other  party,"  he  continues,  "  we  see  a 
movement  almost  ultra-biblical,  and  a  body  of  men  almost 
ultra-apostolical  in  their  style  and  manner  of  life  and  service. 
It  gathered  to  itself  a  strong  body  of  scholars,  mostly  from 
the  pulpits  of  the  Church  of  England,  who  began  to  pour  out 
biblical  literature  in  floods — exposition  and  textual  criticism, 
lexicons  and  dictionaries  for  aiding  in  the  study  of  the  Bible, 
synopses  of  Scripture,  tract  leaflets,  etc.  The  Christian  world 
has  been  fairly  inundated  with  these  issues,  and  it  may  be 
doubted  if  any  body  of  Christians  ever  sent  forth  such  a  mass 
and  such  a  variety  of  biblical  literature  in  the  same  length  of 
time. 

"  If  we  were  to  describe  in  a  word  the  theological  com- 
plexion of  these  writings,  we  should  say  that  here  we  have  high 
Calvinism,  preaching  free  grace  with  a  fullness  and  plainness 
never  siupassed ;  practising  behevers'  baptism,  and  writing 
treatises  on  its  symbolism  rarely  equaled  for  deep  spiritual  in- 
sight ;  laying  down  a  rule  of  life  almost  ascetic  in  its  require- 
ment of  separation  from  the  world  and  surrender  of  earthly 
possessions  for  Christ's  sake ;  and  holding  with  primitive 
apostolic  fervor  to  the  personal,  literal,  and  ever-imminent 
coming  of  Christ  as  the  hope  of  the  church.  It  is  our  opinion 
that  the  best  writings  of  this  body  have  furnished  the  text- 
books of  modern  evangelism,  and  largely  determined  its  type 
of  doctrine  and  preaching.     Let  us  specify  briefly. 


WHERE    THE  ROOTS  FED  87 

"  There  is  C.  H.  Mackintosh's  '  Notes  on  Genesis,'  '  Exo- 
dus,' etc.,  a  work  for  which  Mr.  Spurgeon  has  expressed  his 
high  admiration,  and  which  has  had  an  immense  circulation 
We  know  of  hardly  any  modern  treatise  which  is  so  full  of  the 
meat  and  marrow  of  the  gospel  as  this,  and  which  sets  forth 
so  clearly  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  atonement  and  justifi- 
cation. There  is  '  The  Blood  of  Jesus,'  by  William  Reid — a 
small  treatise,  but  one  which  has  given  to  thousands  of  readers 
a  new  revelation  of  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel.  There  are  the 
'  C.  S.  Tracts,'  brief  presentations  of  the  gospel  to  the  inquirer. 
They  have  been  scattered  far  and  wide,  and  have,  in  our 
opinion,  never  been  surpassed  as  clear  expositions  of  the  way 
of  life  to  the  unconverted.  Of  less  popular  works,  we  might 
mention  Darby's  'Synopsis  of  the  Bible,'  the  expositions  of 
Kelly,  Newton,  Tregelles,  Soltau,  Pridham,  and  Jukes.  These 
books,  especially  those  of  the  first  three,  have  constituted  the 
chief  theological  treasury  of  many  of  our  evangelists.  We  can 
say  for  ourselves  that,  from  the  first  time  our  eyes  fell  upon  these 
treasures,  we  have  nowhere  else  seen  the  gospel  so  luminously 
presented— the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God,  disencumbered  of 
legalism  and  mysticism  and  tradition.  Considered  theologi- 
cally these  are  humble  treatises.  So  was  the  '  Theologia  Ger- 
manica,'  out  of  which,  through  Luther,  the  German  Refor- 
mation was  born.  So  were  the  expositions  of  Peter  Boehler, 
from  which  Wesley  says  he  received  his  first  true  apprehension 
of  saving  faith.  The  springs  of  great  reformations  are  often 
hidden  and  remote,  but  they  rarely  fail  to  be  recognized  in 
the  end. 

"  Besides  books,  there  were  men.  This  little  sect  of  which 
we  are  speaking  has  certainly  shown  us  some  apostolic  char- 
acters. When  George  Muller  set  himself  to  live  a  life  'out 
and  out  for  God,'  and  to  prove  in  his  own  experience  what 
can  be  accomplished  by  the  single  means  of  prayer  and  faith, 
many  criticized,  but  few  commended.     When  men  like  Darby 


88  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

and  Wigram  forsook  their  aristocratic  associations,  and  laid 
down  their  great  inherited  wealth  at  the  feet  of  Christ,  going 
forth  in  apostolic  fashion,  without  scrip  or  purse,  to  preach 
the  gospel  in  every  city,  and  in  almost  every  European  tongue, 
none  went  before  them  to  sound  the  trumpet  of  fame.  But 
such  examples  are  always  and  inevitably  contagious ;  and  they 
have  doubtless  affected  the  consecration  of  modem  evangelism 
quite  as  strongly  as  the  books  have  influenced  its  doctrine, 

"  Such,  we  believe,  after  much  thought  and  careful  investi- 
gation and  frequent  conversations  with  those  best  qualified  to 
judge,  is  the  real  spring  of  the  present  evangelistic  movement. 
It  demands  a  fearless  candor  to  concede  it,  but  we  believe 
that  truth  requires  us  to  confess  that  we  owe  a  great  debt,  both 
in  hterature  and  in  life,  to  the  leaders  of  this  ultra- Protestant 
movement.  And  we  are  glad  to  believe  that  the  light  which 
it  has  thrown  out  by  its  immense  biblical  study  and  research 
has  been  appropriated  by  many  of  the  best  preachers  and 
evangelists  in  our  Protestant  churches." 

The  summer  of  '76  Gordon  spent  with  his  wife  in  Europe. 
Nothing  especially  noteworthy  occurred  in  the  three  months' 
visit.  The  hoary  churches  and  refectories  of  Oxford,  the 
gleaming  peaks  of  the  Jungfrau  and  of  the  Matterhorn,  the 
surf-hke  roar  of  London,  the  idyllic  windings  of  the  Rhine, 
filled  with  interested  pleasure  the  hearts  of  these,  as  of  all 
tourists.  In  London  he  was  specially  drawn  to  the  churches. 
For  the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life  after  his  ordination  (with 
the  exception  of  a  few  Sundays  of  sickness  and  one  solitary 
Sabbath  in  New  Hampton)  he  occupied  a  seat  in  the  congre- 
gation. The  observations  which  he  made  from  his  new  point 
of  view  are  acute  and  discriminating,  and  give  us,  naturally 
enough,  many  intimations  of  the  ideal  and  standard  which  he 
had  set  for  himself. 

"  '  The  secret  of  power '  is  much  inquired  after,  and  when 
one  demonstrates  that  he  has  real  ability  in  preaching  or  in 


WHERE    THE  ROOTS  FED  89 

teaching,  there  is  forthwith  great  speculation  as  to  how  it  was 
acquired.  But  it  ought  to  be  suggested  at  the  outset  that  the 
secret  of  power  is  not  some  algebraic  x — the  unknown  quan- 
tity in  the  problem  of  success,  which  can  be  figured  out,  and 
set  by  itself,  and  its  exact  value  determined.  Real  power 
comes  from  an  even  proportion  and  nice  adjustment  of  all 
the  faculties  of  the  man ;  and  to  imagine  that  there  is  some 
special  secret  which  constitutes  the  philosopher's  stone,  that 
can  transmute  leaden  failure  into  golden  success,  is  to  fall  into 
a  disastrous  mistake.  And  so  it  has  struck  us  again  and 
again  how  utterly  they  come  short  who  aim  at  power  along 
some  single  line  of  culture  or  accomphshment. 

"  There  were  three  preachers  heard  diuing  a  European 
journey  who  furnished  a  complete  lesson  on  this  point. 

"  There  was,  first,  the  intellectual  preacher.  He  was  such  in- 
deed ;  polished  to  the  last  degree,  and  dealing  out  real  and 
carefully  wrought  thought.  It  was  no  ingenious  serving  up 
of  scraps  of  borrowed  opinion — no  mere  originality  of  hterary 
pattern-working  upon  commonplace  material.  Here  was  a 
thinker,  earnest,  genuine,  and  thorough;  and  if  one  should 
want  to  hear  such,  we  would  commend  him  by  all  means  to 
this  divine.  But  though  the  congregation  was  exceptionally 
intelligent,  it  was  evident  that  the  number  who  could  follow 
his  discourse  was  very  small.  To  them  it  was  stimulating,  no 
doubt.  Yet  how  about  the  great  numbers  who  could  not 
follow  it?  Good  food,  and  something  for  all,  must  be  the 
rule  in  feeding  the  flock  of  God.  But  there,  just  in  front  of 
me,  was  a  respectful,  sedate  hearer.  He  might  have  been  a 
grocer  or  a  butcher  or  a  coal-dealer.  At  all  events,  his  busi- 
ness was  such  as  gave  him  little  training  or  aptitude  for  the 
refinements  of  thought  and  the  delicate  shadings  of  style  to 
which  he  was  now  listening.  And  so  I  set  to  watching  his 
face.  Determination  to  be  faithful  in  attending  to  the  ser- 
vices was  written  on  every  feature.     He  was  holding  the 


9©  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

muscles  of  his  face  to  their  Sunday  tension,  I  saw  drowsiness 
and  inattention  pulling  at  them,  but  in  vain.  And  when, 
under  the  loud  and  somewhat  monotonous  tones  of  the 
preacher,  he  half  drowsed,  he  would  start  from  the  perilous 
edge  of  sleep,  and  open  such  a  wakeful  and  applauding  glance 
on  the  minister  as  fairly  humbled  me.  For  said  I,  '  What  a 
pity  that  hungry  souls  should  have  to  stretch  their  necks  and 
strain  their  appetites  to  get  their  spiritual  food,  and  that  they 
should  have  to  look  such  loyal  amens  at  the  preacher  when 
really  they  do  not  understand  what  he  is  saying!'  And  so 
our  good,  patient,  faithful  hearer  went  out  of  church  when  the 
services  were  over.  And  if  he  had  known  the  quotation, 
probably  the  truest  confession  he  could  have  made  would 
have  been  found  in  the  lines  of  Tennyson's  'Northern 
Fanner,  Old  Style ' : 

"  '  An'  'eerd  'un  a-bummin'  awaay  loike  a  buzzard  clock  ower  my  'ead, 
An'  I  never  knawed  whot  a  mean'd,  but  I  thowt  a  'ad  summut  to  saay, 
An'  I  thowt  a  said  whot  a  owt  to  'a'  said,  an'  I  coom'd  awaay. ' 

"Next  we  came  upon  the  unctuous  preacher.  He  made  as 
much  use  of  his  heart  and  his  handkerchief  as  the  other  did 
of  his  head  and  his  learning.  But  who  does  not  know  how 
cheap  the  unction  is  that  is  merely  poured  upon  the  heart,  and 
not  pressed  out  of  the  heart  by  deep  and  genuine  feeling? 
Ready-made  emotion  is  not  hkely  to  fit  a  congregation  very 
closely.  If  a  preacher  has  no  oil  in  his  lamp,  it  matters  little 
how  profusely  he  pours  oil  on  his  head,  or  how  lavishly  it 
runs  down  his  beard.  In  other  words,  fervor  without  light, 
feeling  without  truth,  do  not  generally  move  one.  When 
Robertson  was  discoursing  on  the  love  of  God  to  sinners,  and 
in  the  glow  of  his  kindling  thought  a  tear  was  seen  to  course 
down  his  cheek  and  fall  upon  his  Bible,  no  wonder  that  they 
said  that  that  was  the  most  eloquent  passage  in  his  sermon. 


WHERE    THE  ROOTS  FED  9I 

There  must  be  a  certain  amount  of  thought  to  give  body  to 
feeUng ;  it  is  the  beaten  oil  of  the  sanctuary  which  alone  can 
feed  true  unction.  Oil  produced  from  the  olive-press  of 
Gethsemane— emotion  born  of  true  fellowship  with  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ— this  alone  can  beget  genuine  sympathy.  But 
the  preacher  whom  I  am  describing  sought  to  work  up  feeling 
by  pathetic  exclamations  and  fond  phrases,  and  the  like.  And 
so  I  was  not  surprised  at  the  comment  of  a  Norwegian  musi- 
cian, who  chanced  to  be  travehng  in  our  company.  In  broken 
and  entertaining  English,  he  said,  '  He  did  not  seem  to  veel 
vat  he  says,  and  he  did  not  says  much.' 

"  The  third  preacher  whom  we  heard  impressed  me  neither 
by  his  remarkable  culture  nor  by  his  remarkable  pathos.  He 
had  enough  of  each,  however;  and  the  two  elements  were  so 
evenly  blended  that  neither  was  especially  conspicuous.  But 
he  affected  us  very  deeply.  No  admiration  for  the  preacher's 
genius  was  awakened ;  no  sense  of  his  trying  to  make  us 
weep  was  experienced.  On  the  contrary,  as  he  went  on,  we 
found  ourselves  thinking  of  our  sins,  and  then  adoring  the 
Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world.  In 
fact,  we  confess  that  we  were  disappointed.  We  went  to  hear  a 
great  preacher,  and  from  beginning  to  end  never  thought  of 
him  as  such,  so  much  were  we  occupied  with  self,  the  great 
sinner. 

"  '  Which  now  of  these  three?  *  The  first  made  his  sermon 
a  work  of  art.  That  was  evidently  his  business.  To  that  end 
he  was  pressing  on  with  all  his  might.  '  And  by  chajice  there 
came  down  a  certain  priest  that  way.'  To  find  a  poor, 
wounded,  half-dead  sinner,  and  pour  the  oil  of  grace  into  his 
heart,  was  not  what  he  was  bent  on.  He  was  about  other 
matters — attending  to  his  r/fnVd;/ duties,  minding  his  theology, 
etc. — and  if  he  should  discover  a  lost  sinner  in  his  way,  it 
would  be  entirely  by  chance. 


92  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

"The  second  preacher  beamed  unctuously  upon  his  congre- 
gation, '  oozing  all  over  with  the  fat  affectionate  smile,'  and 
anon  dissolving  his  smiles  in  a  solution  of  tears.  But  there 
was  no  grip  of  truth  in  all  he  said,  no  strong  grappHng  with 
the  conscience,  no  tears  of  penitence  in  the  hearer's  eyes  re- 
flecting tears  of  pity  in  the  preacher's.  '  And  Hkewise  a  Le- 
vite  came  and  looked '  (with  gold-bowed  spectacles,  no  doubt, 
which  had  constantly  to  be  wiped  because  of  his  emotion), 
'  and  passed  by  on  the  other  side.' 

"  The  third  preacher  uttered  a  message  which  came  straight 
home  'to  men's  business  and  bosoms.'  He  was  evidently 
bent  on  seeking  out  the  sinner.  'This  preaching  finds  me,' 
must  have  been  the  feeling  of  many  a  hearer.  '  But  a  certain 
Samaritan,  as  he  jovurneyed,  came  where  he  was.''  This  is  the 
preaching  the  world  needs — not  the  discoursing  in  which  the 
hearer  gets  glimpses,  now  and  then,  of  the  minister  looking 
through  the  lattice  of  some  flowery  period,  or  emerging  from 
some  rhetorical  circumlocution,  only  to  disappear  again  into 
incomprehensibility.  The  preaching  which  comes  close  to 
the  heart,  and  finds  it,  and  blesses  it,  is  what  is  wanted." 

On  another  Sunday  Gordon  had  the  interesting  and  novel 
experience  of  listening  to  his  own  words  with  the  slight  inci- 
dental modifications  suitable  to  differing  congregations.  Then 
indeed  was  a  mirror  set  before  his  eyes.  For  on  going  to  a 
leading  Presbyterian  church  he  was  surprised,  when  the  text 
and  headings  were  given  out,  to  note  how  closely  they  followed 
a  sermon  scheme  which  he  himself  had  used  some  months  be- 
fore in  Boston.  As  the  sermon  progressed  from  stage  to  stage, 
his  own  illustrations,  his  own  metaphors,  his  very  quotations, 
appeared  as  on  an  unfolding  panorama.  The  London  minis- 
ter had.  Dr.  Gordon  afterward  conjectured,  read  the  sermon  in 
a  somewhat  obscure  American  paper  devoted  to  those  prophetic 
exegeses  with  which  he  was  closely  in  touch,  and  had  repro- 
duced it  presumably  by  a  process  of  unconscious  cerebration. 


WHERE    THE  ROOTS  FED  93 

For  when  Gordon  shook  hands  with  him,  introducing  himself 
at  the  meeting's  end,  he  was  invited  without  the  least  apparent 
constraint  or  embarrassment,  which  the  common  ownership  of 
such  a  secret  would  naturally  involve,  to  the  minister's  home, 
and  spent  the  day  with  him  in  pleasant  intercourse. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   TIDE   TURNS 

At  work  with  Uncle  John  Vassar— The  Moody  meetings  of  '77— Inci- 
dents of  the  "inquiry  room  "— "  A  question  of  casuistry  "—The 
redeemed  men — Communion  reform 

AMONG  all  the  influences  which  touched  and  vivified  the 
Jr\.  early  ministry  at  Clarendon  Street,  none  was  stronger  than 
that  of  Uncle  John  Vassar,  a  devoted  laborer  for  souls.  "  Far 
beyond  any  man  whom  I  ever  knew,"  wrote  Gordon,  "  was  it 
true  of  him  that  his  citizenship  was  in  heaven,  and  so  filled 
was  he  with  the  glory  and  the  power  of  the  heavenly  life  that 
to  many  he  seemed  like  a  foreigner  speaking  an  unknown 
tongue.  I  have  never  been  so  humbled  and  quickened  by 
contact  with  any  Hving  man  as  with  him.  Hundreds  of 
Christians,  while  sorrowing  that  they  shall  see  his  face  no 
more  for  the  present,  will  bless  God  as  long  as  they  live  for 
the  inspiration  which  they  have  received  from  his  devoted 
life." 

For  five  successive  years,  off  and  on,  "  Uncle  John  "  labored 
with  the  Clarendon  Street  Chiuch  in  his  peculiar  work  of 
"  spiritual  census-taking,"  going  through  the  streets  of  proud, 
cultivated,  self-righteous  Boston,  ringing  every  door-bell,  and 
confronting  every  household  with  the  great  question  of  the 
new  birth.  He  was  wont  to  describe  himself  as  "only  a 
shepherd-dog,  ready  to  run  after  the  lost  sheep  and  bring 
them  back  to  the  Shepherd,"  and  ever  refused  the  honors  and 
emoluments  of  the  ministry.     He  would  literally  travail  in 

94 


THE    TIDE    TURNS  95 

prayer  for  the  unconverted.  "  The  nights  which  he  spent  at 
my  home,"  writes  Gordon,  "  were  nights  of  prayer  and  plead- 
ing for  my  congregation  and  my  ministry.  Again  and  again 
would  I  hear  him  rising  in  the  midnight  hours  to  plead  with 
God  for  the  unsaved,  till  I  had  frequently  to  admonish  him 
that  he  must  not  lose  his  sleep."  And  so  he  wrought  and 
prayed  and  instructed  the  young  minister,  meekly  teachable 
before  such  a  master  of  spiritual  things,  in  those  hard-learned 
and  rarely  acquired  secrets  which  open  the  way  to  the  heart 
of  hearts  of  sinful  humanity. 

The  inspiration  which  this  faithful  man  brought  with  him 
accrued  principally  to  the  pastor  of  Clarendon  Street.  The 
influence  of  Mr.  Moody's  meetings  in  1877  affected  both 
pastor  and  people.  Indeed,  this  year  was  the  turning-point, 
the  climacteric  which,  after  seven  years  of  lethargic  religious 
life,  opened  a  new  period  of  spiritual  health.  When  the  re- 
vival meetings  were  finished,  Gordon  realized  that  the  crest  of 
the  hill  had  been  passed,  and  that  the  crisis  in  the  struggle  for 
a  spiritual  as  against  a  secular  church  was  over. 

These  meetings,  which  were  organized  and  carried  on  by 
Mr.  Moody  with  all  the  executive  ability  and  religious  fervor 
for  which  he  is  distinguished,  were  held  in  a  large  Tabernacle 
— a  great  "tent,"  indeed,  of  brick  and  spruce  timber,  with 
nothing  about  it  to  attract  but  the  gospel  of  Christ  preached 
therein.  This  building  stood  within  three  hundred  feet  of  the 
Clarendon  Street  Church,  which  was  used  from  the  beginning 
for  overflow  and  "  inquiry  "  meetings.  The  Tabernacle  was 
thronged  night  after  night  by  audiences  of  from  five  to  seven 
thousand.  People  of  all  ranks  and  conditions  attended. 
Excursion  trains  brought  in  thousands  from  all  parts  of  New 
England.  Seventy  thousand  families  in  Boston  were  person- 
ally visited.  Great  noon  prayer-meetings  were  held  daily  in 
Tremont  Temple  by  business  men.  Meetings  were  organized 
for  young  men,  for  boys,  for  women,  for  the  intemperate— in 


96  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

short,  for  all  classes  in  the  community  that  were  ready  to  help 
or  be  helped. 

And  at  the  center  of  all  these  operations  stood  the  Claren- 
don Street  Church,  like  a  cemetery  temporarily  occupied  by 
troops  in  battle.  What  a  shattering  and  overturning  of 
weather-stained,  moss-grown  traditions  followed!  What  ex- 
periences of  grace,  what  widening  vistas  of  God's  power,  what 
instruction  in  personal  rehgion,  resulted  from  these  six  months 
of  revival!  A  new  window  was  built  into  the  religious  life  of 
the  church,  letting  in  floods  of  light.  The  true  purpose  of  a 
church's  existence  began  to  be  emphasized.  Drunkards  and 
outcasts  were  daily  reclaimed,  and  brought  into  fellowship. 
Christian  evidences  of  the  best  sort,  evidences  which  had  to 
do  with  the  present  potency  of  a  saving  Christ,  were  multi- 
plied to  affluence,  strengthening  the  faith  of  believers.  The 
duty  and  opportunity  of  all  in  the  work  of  the  inquiry-room 
were  asserted.  A  great  education  in  methods  of  practical 
religious  work  resulted. 

We  get  a  glimpse  of  the  character  of  this  movement,  as  it 
proceeded  month  after  month,  in  the  following  reminiscences 
from  Dr.  Gordon's  own  pen : 

"In  1877,  during  Mr.  Moody's  meetings  in  Boston,  there 
was  an  inquiry  meeting  in  our  church.  The  house  was  full, 
and  Mr.  Moody  sent  me  around  to  find  workers  to  help.  I 
came  upon  a  woman  with  a  baby.  She  was  anxious  to  find 
Christ ;  for  when  I  approached  her  and  asked  if  she  wanted 
to  be  saved,  she  said,  '  That  is  what  I  came  here  for.' 

"  I  stepped  over  to  a  gentleman  on  the  front  seat,  a  fine- 
looking  man,  and  said,  '  Are  you  a  Christian?  ' 

"  '  Yes,  sir,'  he  answered. 

'"I  want  you  to  go  over  there  and  talk  to  an  inquirer.' 

"  '  I  never  talked  to  an  inquirer,'  he  replied. 

"  '  But  you  are  a  Christian?  ' 

" '  Yes.' 


THE    TIDE    TURNS  97 

*' '  Here  is  a  woman  just  ready  to  be  led  to  Christ.' 
"  *  Excuse  me.  I  should  not  know  what  to  say  to  her.' 
"  Well,  because  I  could  not  get  him  to  go,  I  went  over  my- 
self and  sat  down  beside  the  woman.  But  the  baby  was  so 
restless  that  she  could  not  give  me  her  attention.  The  man 
kept  watching  us,  and  saw  the  situation.  By  and  by  he  crept 
softly  down  and  gave  the  baby  some  sweets,  and  took  her  in 
his  arms  and  carried  her  to  the  other  side  of  the  church  and 
held  her  for  an  hour,  while  I  led  the  woman  to  Christ.  He 
found  that,  if  he  could  not  lead  a  soul  to  Christ,  he  could 
hold  the  baby  while  some  one  else  did.  I  think  a  special 
blessing  rested  upon  that  work ;  for  not  only  was  the  mother 
saved,  but  that  little  girl  came  to  Christ  when  she  was  twelve 
years  old,  and  I  haven't  a  more  aggressive  Christian  in  my 
church  than  that  baby  has  grown  to  be." 

"'Did  I  tell  a  lie?' 

"  It  was  about  as  odd  a  question  of  casuistry  as  was  ever 
propounded ;  and  yet,  as  I  thought  of  it  afterward,  it  seemed 
to  go  about  as  deeply  into  the  heart  of  redemption  as  any 
which  could  be  asked. 

"  He  was  a  real  Irishman,  whose  brogue  would  identify 
him  on  the  first  interview.  We  have  frequently  noticed  that 
when  a  genuine  son  of  Erin  becomes  converted,  and  attempts 
to  launch  out  into  the  language  of  Canaan,  he  provokes  an 
irresistible  smile  on  the  faces  of  grave  Christians.  There  is  a 
certain  quaintness  of  conception  and  expression  which  belongs 
peculiarly  to  the  people  of  this  race  when  dealing  with  re- 
ligious experience,  of  which  we  might  give  some  very  striking 
examples  had  we  room.  For  this,  however,  we  cannot  now 
turn  aside,  but  must  come  to  our  story. 

"  Patrick  Daley  was  one  of  the  first  to  profess  conversion 
in  connection  with  Mr.  Moody's  recent  evangelistic  services 
in  Boston.     He  had  been  a  stanch  Roman  Catholic  by  per- 


98  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

suasion,  but  a  desperate  drunkard  by  practice.  With  an  over- 
powering desire  to  be  saved  from  his  evil  habit,  he  so  far  broke 
through  the  prejudices  of  his  rehgion  as  to  go  and  Hsten  to 
the  great  evangehst.  There  he  heard  with  astonishment  and 
dehght  that  the  chief  of  sinners  and  the  most  hopeless  of 
drunkards  might  find  immediate  forgiveness  and  deliverance 
through  surrender  to  Jesus  Christ.  He  went  into  the  inquiry- 
room,  and  trustingly  accepted  the  Saviour,  and  entered  into 
great  peace  and  joy  in  believing.  With  his  conversion,  he 
got  rid  not  only  of  the  heavy  burden  of  his  sin,  but  of  the 
not  less  heavy  burden  of  popish  ceremonies  and  superstitions. 
All  these  he  now  counted  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  know- 
ledge of  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord,  and  descanted  in  no  very 
temperate  terms  on  the  folly  and  abomination  of  the  things 
in  which  he  had  formerly  trusted.  Several  weeks  after  his 
conversion,  he  approached  me  at  the  close  of  a  meeting  with 
his  story  and  his  question. 

" '  You  see,  your  reverence,  I  know  a  good  thing  when  I 
get  it ;  and  when  I  found  salvation,  I  could  not  keep  it  to 
myself.  Peter  Murphy  lived  in  the  upper  story  of  the  same 
tenement  with  me.  Murphy  was  a  worse  drunkard  than  I,  if 
such  a  thing  could  be ;  and  we  had  gone  on  many  a  spree 
together.  Well,  when  I  got  saved  and  washed  clean  in  the 
blood  of  Christ,  I  was  so  happy  I  did  not  know  what  to  do 
with  myself.  So  I  went  up  to  Murphy,  and  told  him  what  I 
had  got. 

"'Poor  Peter!  he  was  just  getting  over  a  spree,  and  was 
pretty  sick  and  sore,  and  just  ready  to  do  anything  I  told 
him.  So  I  got  him  to  sign  the  pledge,  and  then  told  him 
that  Jesus  alone  could  help  him  keep  it.  Then  I  got  him  on 
his  knees,  and  made  him  pray  and  surrender  to  the  Lord,  as 
I  had  done.  You  never  see  such  a  change  in  a  man  as  there 
was  in  him  for  the  next  week.  I  kept  watch  of  him,  and 
prayed  for  him,  and  helped  him  on  the  best  I  could,  and,  sure, 


THE    TIDE    TURNS  99 

he  was  a  different  man.  Well,  come  Sunday  morning,  Joe 
Healey  called  round  to  pay  his  usual  visit.  This  was  the 
worst  yet ;  for  Healey  used  to  come  to  see  Murphy  as  regu- 
lar as  Sunday,  always  bringing  a  bottle  of  whisky  with  him, 
and  these  two  would  spree  it  all  day,  till  they  turned  the 
whole  house  into  a  bedlam.  Well,  I  saw  Healey  coming  last 
Sunday  morning,  and  I  was  afraid  it  would  be  all  up  with 
poor  Murphy  if  he  got  with  him.  So  when  I  went  to  the 
door  to  let  him  in,  and  he  said,  "  Good-morning,  Pat ;  is 
Murphy  in?  "  I  said,  '*  No;  Murphy  is  out.  He  does  not  live 
here  any  longer/^  and  in  this  way  I  sent  Healey  off,  and  saved 
Murphy  from  temptation.' 

"  Here  was  the  burden  of  his  question  ;  for  he  continued : 

"  '  Did  I  tell  a  lie?  What  I  meant  was  that  the  old  Murphy 
did  not  live  there  any  more.  For  you  know  Mr.  Moody  told 
us  that  when  a  man  is  converted  he  is  a  new  creature ;  old 
things  have  passed  away.  And  I  beheve  that  Murphy  is  a 
new  creature,  and  that  the  old  Murphy  does  not  live  any 
more  in  that  attic.  That  is  what  I  meant.  Did  I  tell  a 
lie?' 

"  Candid  reader,  what  should  I  say?  In  the  light  of  Paul's 
great  saying,  '  Nevertheless  I  live ;  yet  jwt  /,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  me,'  can  it  be  denied  that  Patrick  Daley  was  right? 

"  It  may  be  claimed  that  it  is  a  dangerous  kind  of  theologi- 
cal jugglery  which  we  here  encounter.  '  What  I  hate,  that  I 
do,'  says  Paul.  Alas!  no  one  who  knows  the  depths  of  an 
evil  nature  can  deny  that.  '  If  then  I  do  that  which  I  would 
not,  I  consent  unto  the  law  that  it  is  good.'  Yes;  certainly 
that  is  true.  '  Now  then  it  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin 
that  dwelleth  in  me.'  Ah!  here  is  a  conclusion  which  may 
well  startle  us.  Can  we  prove  an  alibi  at  the  judgment-seat? 
Can  we  swear  the  blame  of  our  wrong-doing  upon  the  inbred 
sin  which  dwelt  within  us,  and  expect  to  go  scot-free  our- 
selves?    When  the  sheriff  of  the  law  comes  knocking  at  our 


lOO  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

door  to  arrest  us  and  hale  us  away  to  prison,  can  we  say, 
'  Old  I  doesn't  live  here  any  more ;  the  new  man  occupies  the 
house  now'? 

"  It  can  hardly  be  denied  that  Paul's  theology  is  very  radi- 
cal in  just  this  direction.  '  Unselfed  and  inchristed '  is  the 
phrase  that  has  been  employed  to  set  forth  the  great  trans- 
action of  spiritual  renewal ;  and  observe  how  the  apostle  en- 
courages us  to  serve  a  writ  of  ejection  on  the  old  tenant,  our 
evil  self,  and  to  bring  in  a  new  occupant  of  the  premises: 
'  That  ye  put  off  concerning  the  former  conversation  the  old 
man,  which  is  corrupt  according  to  the  deceitful  lusts ;  .  .  . 
and  that  ye  ////  oti  the  new  man,  which  after  God  is  created  in 
righteousness  and  true  holiness.'  No  betterment  or  refor- 
mation of  the  depraved  tenant,  who  is  always  in  hopeless  ar- 
rears with  his  landlord,  but  a  peremptory  order  to  move  out ! 
Moreover,  the  Christian  is  considered  to  have  done  this  very 
thing — evicted  his  former  self,  and  set  its  goods  and  chattels 
out  upon  the  sidewalk.  *  Seeing  that  ye  have  put  off  the  old 
man  with  his  deeds ;  and  have  put  on  the  new  man,  which  is 
renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  image  of  Him  that  created 
him.'  So  vividly  and  strongly  did  this  conception  take  hold 
of  Martin  Luther  that  he  used  to  say,  '  When  any  one  comes 
and  knocks  at  the  door  of  my  heart  and  asks,  "  Who  hves 
here?"  I  reply,  "Martin  Luther  used  to,  but  he  has  moved 
out,  and  Jesus  Christ  now  hves  here." '  " 

Before  the  meetings  were  ended  nearly  thirty  reclaimed 
drunkards  had  been  received  into  the  Clarendon  Street  Church. 
The  general  opinion  was  that  these  men  would  not  stand  even 
to  the  end  of  the  year.  Yet  Gordon  was  able  to  say  some 
time  after,  in  a  Northfield  address,  "  Of  those  who  have  con- 
tinued their  residence  with  us,  all  have  remained  steadfast, 
as  consistent,  as  devoted,  and  as  useful  members  as  we  have, 
a  demonstration  that  God  can  instantly  change  a  man  from 


THE    TIDE    TURNS  lOI 

the  vilest  and  worst  drunkard  to  one  in  the  way  to  the  high- 
est saintship." 

After  his  death  a  few  pencihngs  were  found  among  his 
papers  describing  the  conversion  of  one  of  these  men.  He 
had  started  to  write  an  eighth  chapter  for  the  fragment  of 
spiritual  autobiography  which  was  issued  posthumously  under 
the  title  of  "A  Pastor's  Dream."  These  few  notes  were 
found  too  late  for  publication.  In  the  preceding  chapters  he 
had  described  the  entrance  of  Christ  into  the  church  where  he 
was  preaching,  and  the  effect  which  his  presence  had  had  on 
him.     Continuing,  he  says  : 

"  Why  he  visited  our  sanctuary  on  that  Lord's  day  morning, 
and  what  gracious  lessons  he  taught  us  concerning  his  power 
and  his  coming,  we  have  learned  in  the  previous  chapters. 
But  longing  for  yet  greater  blessings,  we  still  press  the  ques- 
tion, 'But  wherefore,  O  Master,  camest  thou  in  thither?' 
Was  he  searching,  perchance,  for  a  lost  sheep?  That  were 
a  sufficient  reason,  as  he  himself  has  taught  us,  why  he 
should  leave  the  ninety  and  nine  which  are  safely  sheltered, 
and  go  after  the  one  which  has  strayed.  Yes  ;  but  this  would 
not  seem  to  be  the  place  to  look  for  straying  lambs.  A  beau- 
tiful Gothic  church,  richly  carpeted  and  upholstered,  and  filled 
with  a  sober  and  respectable  congregation,  is  not,  as  a  rule, 
the  resort  of  wretched  outcasts.  In  the  miserable  slums,  amid 
the  reek  and  defilement  of  human  sewage,  we  shall  find  such, 
and  not  in  this  elegant  modern  sanctuary.  Thank  God,  how- 
ever, there  are  exceptions  to  such  a  rule. 

"  No.  40  was  the  pew  where,  in  vision,  I  saw  the  Master 
seated  on  that  memorable  Sunday  morning.  Directly  behind, 
in  the  pew  next  to  the  door,  is  where,  not  in  a  dream,  but  in 
sad  reality,  I  found  the  lost  sheep.  He  had  not  strayed  in  by 
accident ;  he  had  been  bleating  about  the  fold  for  some  hours 
with  the  vague  hope  of  finding  help ;  but  Satan,  with  the  pre- 
monition that  he  was  about  to  be  deprived  of  his  prey,  had 


I02  ADONJRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

made  a  last  desperate  effort  to  retain  him.  Each  saloon  he 
had  passed  in  his  way  to  the  church  had  smitten  him  with  a 
fresh  cup  of  alcoholic  poison,  till,  sore  broken  in  the  place  of 
dragons,  and  covered  with  the  shadow  of  death,  he  had  crept 
into  this  remote  corner  of  the  church  and  swooned  away  into 
a  drunken  sleep.  Humanly  speaking  it  was  only  by  the 
merest  accident  that  I  discovered  him.  The  congregation 
had  dispersed  after  the  evening  service ;  the  lights,  excepting 
two  or  three  near  the  door,  had  been  turned  off,  when,  passing 
down  the  aisle,  I  discovered  what  seemed  to  be  a  pile  of  filthy 
rags,  beneath  which,  on  examination,  I  found  as  wretched  a 
specimen  of  ruined  humanity  as  I  ever  set  eyes  on.  'Call  a 
policeman.  Take  him  away  to  the  lockup '  would  no  doubt 
have  .  .  ." 

Here  the  pen  dropped,  never  to  be  resumed. 

The  "  wretched  specimen  of  ruined  humanity "  became, 
through  the  miracle  of  conversion,  a  most  extraordinary  ex- 
ample of  the  transforming  and  sustaining  power  of  God's 
Spirit.  For  seventeen  long  years  the  man  here  referred  to 
has,  in  the  divine  strength,  been  kept  from  falling.  The  slave 
was  freed ;  his  family  reunited  in  Christian  fellowship.  No 
testimony  has  been  more  eloquent,  because  of  its  evident  truth 
and  because  of  its  note  of  thankfulness,  than  this  man's,  so 
unfailingly  given  in  the  evening  meetings  of  the  church.  In 
season  and  out  of  season,  at  the  shop  and  among  the  squalid 
wrecks  at  mission  meetings,  has  he  borne  witness  to  God's 
presence.  And  even  on  Boston  Common,  where  Whitefield 
preached  to  the  multitudes  of  an  earlier  generation  with  such 
power  that  tears  might  be  seen  on  every  cheek,  the  pitiable 
drunkard,  now  clean  and  whole  and  in  his  right  mind,  may  be 
found  on  warm  afternoons  in  the  leafy  months,  setting  forth 
the  gospel  of  Christ  to  the  motley  crowds  about  him. 

No  one  knows  as  well  as  Dr.  Gordon's  most  intimate  friends 
the  complete  and  triumphant  satisfaction  which  the  conversion 


THE    TIDE    TURNS  103 

of  these  ruined  men  gave  him.  No  one  else  knows  how 
tender  was  the  sohcitude  with  which  he  watched  their  Hves, 
even  as  the  Good  Shepherd  himself.  The  ninety  and  nine 
just  persons  who  need  no  repentance — who  are  busied  with 
literature,  social  life,  and  what  not— doubtless  felt  how  little 
this  man  sympathized  with  their  life,  and  how  languid  was  his 
interest  in  their  enthusiasms.  He  was  no  social  pet,  no  rev- 
erend idol!  His  enthusiasm  was  for  the  poor,  wretched, 
submerged,  helpless,  and  hopeless  sinner.  To  such  he  gave 
his  heart  and  his  time  and  his  strength.  The  "redeemed 
men  "  were  to  him  the  jewels  of  his  church.  In  reclaimed 
sinners  he  saw  the  flowering  of  the  truth.  They  were  as  the 
lotus  growing  out  of  the  mud.  We  well  remember  his  sigh  of 
relief  on  coming  from  the  death-bed  of  one  of  these  men  at 
the  City  Hospital.  MacNamara  was  a  miserable,  drunken 
beggar,  with  hardly  three  garments  on  him,  when  he  first  ap- 
peared at  the  pastor's  home  ;  but  he  was  not  beyond  the  reach 
of  Christ.  Poor,  weak  man!  though  strong  in  the  new 
strength,  falling,  yet  ever  rising,  and  dying,  finally,  a  trium- 
phant death!  "  MacNamara  is  safe  now,"  were  the  words  on 
Gordon's  lips  as  he  returned  from  the  hospital  that  day.  No 
more  anguish,  no  more  heart-sorrow,  for  this  child  of  his.  He, 
the  under-shepherd,  had  passed  him  on  to  the  great  Shepherd 
of  the  sheep,  who  carries  the  lambs  in  his  bosom,  and  gently 
leads  them  that  are  with  young.     MacNamara  is  safe! 

The  entrance  of  so  many  reformed  men  into  the  church 
necessitated  changes  in  the  administration  of  the  communion, 
which  have  now  become  general.  The  cup  of  dragons  could 
not  be  offered  to  men  whom  it  had  tortured  and  poisoned. 
Nor  could  it  represent  the  perfect  Sacrifice,  the  untainted 
Passover.  The  first  consideration  was  forced  upon  the  church 
by  the  presence  of  these  members,  newly  emancipated  from 
the  bondage  of  alcoholism.  The  second  was  the  result  of  a 
careful  exegetical  study,  which  led  finally  to  the  abandonment 


104  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

of  fermented  elements  altogether,  and  the  substitution  there- 
for of  the  pure  juice  of  the  grape  and  of  unleavened  Passover 
bread.  In  justification  of  this  supplanting  of  "  that  fallen 
angel  of  creation,  that  right-hand  minister  of  the  evil  one," 
an  exhaustive  study  of  the  whole  subject  was  published. 
From  this  we  can  draw  only  a  brief  extract. 

After  commenting  on  the  fact  that  the  only  two  terms  used 
in  Scripture  in  this  connection  are  "  the  cup  "  and  "  the  fruit  of 
the  vine,"  and  that  the  word  "wine  "  is  nowhere  employed  to 
describe  the  symbolic  blood ;  and  after  noting  that  the  term 
"  fruit  of  the  vine  "  could  hardly  signify  fermented  wine,  since 
the  usages  of  the  Jewish  Passover,  out  of  which  the  commu- 
nion sprang,  seem  to  forbid  its  employment  by  the  rigid  ex- 
clusion of  leaven ;  and  after  quoting  statements  of  living 
rabbis  which  interdict  the  use  of  wine  in  the  Passover  service 
of  to-day,  he  says : 

"The  use  of  fermented  wine  seems  to  mar  the  symbolism 
of  this  divine  ordinance.  The  crimson  wine  poured  out 
brings  graphically  before  us  Christ's  blood  which  was  shed  for 
the  remission  of  sins ;  the  drinking  of  the  cup  tells  plainly  of 
our  nourishment  through  the  imparted  life  of  Christ.  But 
there  is  another  idea  which  should  be  suggested  by  this  sacra- 
ment, the  immaculateness  of  the  Redeemer's  blood. 

"  The  Passover  loaf  was  typical  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  im- 
portant, therefore,  that  the  symbols  which  point  back  to 
Christ  should  be  as  significant  as  those  which  pointed  forward 
to  him.  The  unleavened  bread  was  rigidly  insisted  on  as 
the  ceremonial  prophecy  of  Christ ;  the  unleavened  bread  was 
used  in  instituting  the  memorial  sacrament  of  Christ ;  and  we 
hold  that  the  unleavened  bread  meets  the  typical  requirements 
and  therefore  should  still  be  retained  in  the  eucharist.  We 
apply  the  same  principle  to  the  cup.  It  is  the  symbol  of  '  the 
precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish  and 
without  spot.'     Here  is  the  one  blood  in  which  there  is  no 


THE    TIDE    TURNS  105 

taint  of  hereditary  sin,  no  trace  of  natural  or  acquired  deprav- 
ity. What  can  adequately  symbolize  the  holy  blood  of  him 
who,  '  through  the  eternal  Spirit,  offered  up  himself  without 
spot  unto  God  ?  ' 

"  Scripture  declares  that  leaven  signifies  corruption ;  chemis- 
try pronounces  that  fermentation  is  death.  How  then  can 
this  element  typify  Christ?  Can  corruption  stand  as  the 
similitude  of  the  Incorruptible  One?  Can  death  show  forth 
him  who  is  the  Life?  It  may  be  fitting  that  those  who  are 
'the  degenerate  plants  of  a  strange  vine'— the  deniers  of 
Christ's  spotless  humanity— should  symbolize  their  faith  by 
the  cup  in  which  the  depravity  of  alcohol  is  working  to  pro- 
duce all  manner  of  concupiscence  ;  but  let  the  branches  of  the 
True  Vine,  who  rejoice  in  the  holiness  of  their  Head,  contend 
for  the  true  fruit  of  the  vine,  and  so  keep  the  cup  of  the  Lord 
innocent  and  undepraved  till  they  drink  it  new  in  the  kingdom 
of  the  Father." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

REFORM    FOR    INDIVIDUAL   AND    STATE 

The  Boston  Industrial  Temporary  Home — An  answer  to  prayer — Wendell 
Phillips  and  the  drunkard — Crossett  of  North  China — Advocacy  of 
prohibition — Cooperation  with  Joseph  Cook  in  reform  work — The 
Prohibition  party — Woman's  cause 

HOW  to  discriminate  between  the  worthy  and  the  unworthy 
— between  the  man  who  is  trying  and  the  man  who  is  lying 
— is  the  eternal  crux  in  the  problem  of  charity.  The  Moody 
meetings  had  brought  to  Dr.  Gordon's  attention,  as  never 
before,  the  possibihties,  the  encouragements,  and  the  dangers 
inhering  in  work  among  drunkards.  The  futility  of  preach- 
ing to  those  whose  stomachs  are  faint  and  empty  became 
speedily  evident.  The  need,  too,  of  a  temporary  refuge  for 
converted  men,  who  without  such  a  place  would  be  likely  to 
drift  back  into  old  haunts,  forced  itself  on  him.  The  Indus- 
trial Temporary  Home,  an  institution  very  like  the  Salvation 
Army  "  shelters  "  of  a  later  day,  was  started,  therefore,  for  the 
immediate  relief  of  those  out  of  work,  and  as  a  means  of  de- 
termining the  value  and  reality  of  professions  made  by  men 
of  this  class.  The  practical  importance  of  the  enterprise  was 
clear  from  the  first.  From  the  first,  too,  its  peculiar  difficul- 
ties were  apparent.  Embarrassing  financial  problems  met  the 
committee  in  charge  at  every  turn.  The  various  superinten- 
dents and  matrons,  who  succeeded  one  another  with  ominous 
rapidity,  proved  collectively  incompetent.  Trustees  became 
discouraged,  resignation  followed  resignation,  financial  back- 

io6 


REFORM  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  AND  STATE  107 

ing  was  withdrawn ;  the  craft  was  clearly  water-logged  and 
sinking. 

Responsibility  was  shifted,  finally,  entirely  upon  Dr.  Gor- 
don's shoulders.  For  a  term  of  years  he  carried  almost  alone 
the  heavy  weight  of  a  work  the  only  assured  fruit  of  which 
was  the  annually  recurring  deficit.  Burdened  with  this  great 
care,  he  left  the  city  one  summer  to  take  a  brief  vacation  in 
the  hill-country.  A  sense  of  deep  disheartenment  pressed 
heavily  upon  him.  An  undertaking  promising,  useful,  neces- 
sary, was  trembling  on  the  edge  of  disruption.  There  was  no 
human  help  in  sight.  He  was  driven,  therefore,  into  the  arms 
of  God.  Every  morning  during  the  whole  summer  he  with- 
drew to  a  quiet  place  in  the  woods,  a  spot  still,  sun-dappled, 
and  there  laid  before  the  Lord  the  discouragements  and  the 
needs  of  the  work.  Summer  passed,  and  in  early  September  he 
was  back  again  in  the  city.  Seated  in  his  study  a  few  days 
after  his  arrival,  he  was  handed  a  note  in  unfamiliar  writing, 
requesting  an  immediate  interview.  Replying  to  the  summons 
and  hunting  up  the  address,  he  soon  found  himself  in  the 
chamber  of  an  old  man,  in  a  quarter  of  the  city  long  deserted 
by  residents  and  given  over  now  to  the  roar  of  traffic.  The 
man  was  an  entire  stranger,  a  relic  of  a  rapidly  passing  gener- 
ation, inordinately  fond  of  his  properties,  as  was  afterward 
learned.  There  he  sat,  dry,  wizened,  in  skullcap,  surrounded 
by  a  clutter  of  dust-covered  documents  and  papers,  a  bottle 
of  brandy  at  his  left  hand.  His  intentions  were  soon  made 
known.  He  had  learned  during  the  summer  of  the  Industrial 
Home,  and  had  become  convinced  of  the  reasonableness  and 
expediency  of  its  method.  He  wished,  therefore,  to  make 
provision  for  it  in  his  will,  and  to  get  suggestions  from  Gordon 
looking  toward  the  enlargement  of  the  work  and  the  placing 
of  it  upon  a  secure  basis. 

This  day's  interview  was  the  first  in  a  series  of  events  which 
resulted  in  the  complete  solution  of  this  problem  of  many 


Io8  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

weary  years.  The  bequest  when  paid  amounted  to  over 
twenty  thousand  dollars.  A  strong  cabinet  was  formed  for 
the  more  efficient  care  of  the  institution,  composed  of  men 
able,  generous,  reliable — men  who  have  stood  by  to  the 
present  day.  As  a  result  of  further  earnest  prayer,  a  superin- 
tendent of  exceptional  ability  and  consecration,  a  converted 
horse-jockey,  was  brought  unexpectedly  to  Dr.  Gordon's 
notice,  one  who  for  many  years  has  not  only  conducted  the 
Home  with  superior  executive  skill,  but  has  also  helped  to 
found  homes  of  a  like  character  in  many  of  our  Northern  and 
Western  cities.  In  a  short  time  the  institution  was  on  a  pay- 
ing basis.  At  present  nearly  thirty-five  thousand  lodgings  are 
provided  annually,  and  about  fifty  thousand  meals.  Best  of 
all,  a  successful  rescue  work  is  being  carried  on  which  has 
brought  hundreds  from  the  gutter  into  the  church. 

"  It  was  the  greatest  lesson  in  faith  I  have  ever  had,"  said 
Gordon  once,  in  recounting  the  experience,  "  From  that  day 
to  this  I  have  prayed  with  the  greatest  assurance  of  God's 
intervention  in  practical  matters."  From  that  day  to  his 
death,  too,  he  labored  for  the  Home,  the  last  time  that  he 
was  out  before  his  final  sickness  being  at  its  annual  commit- 
tee-meeting. His  associates  declared  in  resolutions  after  his 
death : 

"  He  was,  indeed,  the  central  figure  [in  the  work],  being  in 
a  sense  its  founder,  and  always  its  devoted  friend,  giving  to 
it  unceasingly  his  time,  his  thought,  his  effort,  and  his 
prayers.  .  .  .  His  devotion  to  the  work  of  saving  men  was 
always  prominent  and  supreme.  In  this  respect  we  gladly 
concede  that  in  service  and  sacrifice  he  has  outstripped  us  all." 

The  following  letter  gives  us  an  intimation  of  his  constant 
interest  in  the  Home : 

"Dear  Brother  Roberts:  I  have  only  now  found  time 
to  reply  to  your  letter.     I  appreciate  more  and  more  your 


REFORM  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  AND  STATE  109 

work.  It  is  the  work  for  reaching  men.  I  am  sure  there  is 
no  occasion  for  you  to  be  disturbed  in  any  way.  So  far  as  I 
can  judge,  it  is  going  on  well  and  satisfactorily.  It  requires 
much  patience  at  your  end  of  the  line,  and  it  requires  much 
at  this  end  to  keep  up  with  the  door-bell,  and  to  hear  all  the 
calls  for  help — a  perfect  stream  this  morning,  giving  us  hardly 
a  half-hour's  rest.  But  we  must  all  keep  the  two  bears  well 
fed  and  under  constant  control,  namely,  'bear  and  forbear.' 
Both  of  these  are  liable  to  get  out  of  their  cages,  and  no- 
where is  their  good  nature  more  taxed  than  at  your  Home 
and  my  home.  May  the  God  of  peace  keep  our  hearts  and 
minds  in  perfect  peace. 

"Yours  in  Christ, 

"A.  J.  Gordon." 

In  the  early  days  of  struggle  and  isolation,  Gordon  had 
been  immensely  encouraged  by  the  sympathy  which  the  first 
citizen  of  the  commonwealth,  Wendell  Phillips,  constantly 
showed  to  him  in  this  undertaking.  In  some  reminiscences 
of  the  great  agitator,  published  shortly  after  his  departure,  he 
refers  to  this : 

"  In  temperance  work  I  saw  more  of  Wendell  Phillips's 
heart  than  anywhere  else.  He  struck  hard  blows  against  the 
drink  iniquity.  But  here  he  was  not  merely  an  iconoclast, 
bringing  down  his  hammer  upon  license  laws,  which,  next  to 
fugitive-slave  laws,  he  hated  most  intensely ;  he  was  a  healer 
as  well  as  a  smiter.  He  used  to  come  into  the  Home  for  re- 
forming inebriates,  which  we  started  at  the  time  of  the  Moody 
and  Sankey  meetings,  to  inquire  after  the  enterprise  and  give 
it  his  encouragement.  He  sometimes  brought  in  poor,  broken- 
down  drunkards,  to  ask  the  help  of  our  Christian  workers  on 
their  behalf.  His  indignation  against  the  rumseller,  and  the 
laws  that  sustained  him,  was  matched  only  by  his  tender 
compassion  toward   the  wretched  victims  of   strong   drink. 


no  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Once,  with  one  of  our  Christian  women,  the  question  came 
up  as  to  the  possibihty  of  reclaiming  the  confirmed  drunkard, 
when  she,  with  all  the  ardor  of  her  conviction,  declared  that 
there  was  certainly  one  way,  viz.,  by  the  grace  of  God  brought 
to  bear  in  a  renewed  heart.  And  I  cannot  describe  the  sym- 
pathetic tenderness  with  which  he  assented  to  the  remark, 
nor  the  spirit  of  humble  self-distrust  with  which  he  alluded,  in 
a  single  sentence,  to  his  own  experience." 

Others  would  occasionally  stray  into  the  Home  besides 
outcasts.  Some  ten  years  ago  a  minute  was  forwarded  to  the 
State  Department  from  the  American  consul  in  Shanghai, 
describing  the  life  of  a  Mr.  Crossett,  an  independent  mission- 
ary in  China,  who  worked  throughout  the  province  of  Shan- 
tung, preaching,  visiting  prisons,  nursing  the  sick,  burying  the 
dead.  He  was  much  of  an  ascetic,  living  chiefly  on  rice, 
millet,  and  water.  The  Chinese  revered  him,  calling  him  the 
Christian  Buddha,  and  freely  gave  him  food  and  lodging.  A 
httle  notice  of  him  was  pubhshed  in  the  "  Watchword  "  at  the 
time  of  his  death  : 

"  We  were  honored  to  know  the  man  well.  In  the  Indus- 
trial Home  in  Boston  of  which  we  are  president — an  institu- 
tion to  lodge  and  feed  the  homeless  and  stranger  requiring 
work,  with  the  saw  and  ax  as  compensation — we  first  found 
him.  Being  in  the  city  as  a  stranger,  he  preferred  to  lodge 
in  this  place,  working  for  his  board,  to  asking  hospitahty.  An 
educated  man  of  keen,  original  mind,  men  called  him  very 
eccentric.  He  was  so  since  he  made  Christ  his  center,  and 
hence  was  thrown  out  of  center  with  the  customs  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  world. 

"  Eccentricity  is  a  relative  term.  The  orthodoxy  of  one 
age  often  becomes  the  heterodoxy  of  another.  The  faith  of 
primitive  Christianity  is  at  some  points  scouted  as  the  fanati- 
cism of  latter-day  Christianity.  The  first  sign  of  alleged  in- 
sanity which  Mr.  Crossett  exhibited  was  in  his  laying  hands 


REFORM  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  AND   STATE  ill 

on  the  sick  for  their  recovery.  He  learned  it  of  his  Chinese 
converts,  they  having  learned  it  from  the  New  Testament. 
He  at  first  forbade  them,  but  they  challenged  him  by  the 
Word  of  God  whether  they  were  not  enjoined  to  do  so.  He 
had  to  concede  it ;  then  he  practised  it,  and  was  set  down  as 
touched  with  insanity.  .  .  .  We  had  much  sweet  converse 
and  prayer  with  him.     May  he  rest  in  peace." 

It  is  a  rare  thing  indeed  for  one  who  has  wrought  any 
length  of  time  among  the  poor,  and  for  the  rescue  of  drunk- 
ards, to  fail  to  develop  convictions  upon  the  duty  of  the  State 
in  regard  to  the  saloon.  Monumental  insane  asylums,  ever- 
widening  potter's  fields,  and  the  vast,  unending  streams  of 
miserable  poverty— which,  as  investigators  one  and  all,  from 
Charles  Booth  to  the  humblest  charity  visitor,  agree,  flow 
from  the  doors  of  this  institution  as  from  a  chief  source — 
quicken  indignation  and  stimulate  belief  in  a  "root-and- 
branch  "  policy.  Gordon  was  no  exception  to  this  experi- 
ence. "  He  was  broad  enough, "  wrote  Dr.  O.  P.  Gifford  of 
him,  "  to  look  beyond  the  individual  to  the  State.  Some  men 
make  bricks;  others  make  buildings.  Some  can  never  see 
beyond  the  unit ;  others  can  think  of  the  sum.  Dr.  Gordon 
tried  to  help  men  who  were  in  need,  but  he  also  strove  for 
the  health  of  the  State.  He  was  always  ready  to  cast  his 
vote  and  to  raise  his  voice  for  prohibition.  The  Good  Sa- 
maritan in  the  parable  received  commendation  because  he 
helped  the  man  who  had  fallen  among  thieves.  Dr.  Gordon 
deserves  greater  commendation ;  for,  while  he  ministered  to 
the  unfortunate  through  the  Home,  he  hindered  the  robber 
through  the  State.  He  was  not  foolish  enough  to  spend  his 
money  on  bandages  and  oil,  paying  part  of  the  bills,  mean- 
while, by  Hcensing  the  brigands.  He  combined  sympathy 
for  the  wronged  with  sense  for  the  thief.  The  Pharisees 
might  use  the  price  of  Christ  to  buy  a  potter's  field ;  but  Dr. 
Gordon  had  no  patience  with  men  who  would  sell  humanity 


112  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  CORDON 

and  compromise  with  evil  by  taking  money  wherewith  to  buy 
burying-grounds.  His  great  patience  came  nearest  to  ex- 
haustion when  he  saw  politicians  putting  the  State  in  pawn 
for  Hcense  fees,  and  professing  Christians  casting  votes  to 
strengthen  the  poHticians,  and  sharing  the  spoils.  ...  In 
pulpit  and  platform  he  never  flinched  in  his  advocacy  of  total 
abstinence  for  the  individual  and  prohibition  for  the  State. 
Like  the  pillar  of  Israel's  wanderings,  he  was  light  for  those 
who  sought  liberty,  but  lightning  for  the  Egyptians  who  fol- 
lowed to  enslave." 

No  consideration  of  expediency  ever  affected  him.  The 
opportunism  of  the  so-called  high-license  system  he  opposed 
on  grounds  of  conscience  with  utmost  vigor.  "  '  The  moral 
law,' "  he  used  to  say,  quoting  Vinet,  " '  is  an  arithmetic  in 
which  there  are  only  even  numbers,  no  fractions.  In  other 
words,  there  are  no  half-duties  in  God's  requirements.'  If 
we  cannot  enforce  our  view  we  can  at  least  witness  against 
any  other  which  compromises  with  this  disreputable  iniquity. 
There  is  a  power  in  steady,  year-after-year  protest  which  will 
make  itself  felt  in  the  long  run." 

One  can  hardly  deny  now  that  his  moral  intuitions  have 
been,  in  the  Hght  of  the  continuous  and  complete  failure  of 
half-measures,  entirely  'justified.  The  saloon,  with  its  Gar- 
gantua  appetite,  goes  on  swallowing  everything  we  prize — 
virtue,  honor,  wealth,  integrity,  political  purity,  the  sanctities 
of  the  home.  "The  new  barbarism,"  as  they  fitly  call  it  in 
France,  yearly  extends  its  sway.  Only  one  policy  has  in  any 
degree  driven  it  back — the  policy  of  prohibitive  extinction. 

Every  one  familiar  with  the  hfe  of  Boston  knows  how  diffi- 
cult it  is  for  moral  reform  to  get  a  foothold  on  its  congealed 
and  slippery  respectability.  The  traditions  of  reform  are  up- 
held by  ostracized  men.  Phillips  in  the  last  generation  and 
Joseph  Cook  in  our  day  have  been  social  pariahs  for  the 
truth's  sake,  cast  out  in  the  one  case  by  the  Cotton  Whigs, 


REFORM  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  AND   STATE  113 

and  in  the  other  by  a  dull,  rich,  respectable  bourgeoisie. 
"This  Joseph,"  remarked  Gordon  once,  referring  to  Mr. 
Cook,  "like  that  other  Joseph,  whose  branches  ran  over  the 
wall,  has  been  sorely  shot  at  by  the  archers.  But  we  rejoice 
that,  like  that  same  Joseph,  his  bow  to-day  abides  in  strength." 
Side  by  side,  the  two  wrought,  supporting  not  what  was  politic, 
but  what  was  right.  It  is  interesting  to  think  of  the  old  veteran 
of  antislavery  giving  them  his  blessing  as  he  himself  left  the 
stage. 

"  There  is  a  grand  movement  in  the  way  of  temperance  on 
foot,"  said  Gordon  one  day,  in  a  little  speech  at  the  Monday 
lectureship,  "  led  by  what  Wendell  Phillips  used  to  call  '  the 
Beacon  Street  reformers.'  He  sat  yonder  one  morning,  almost 
the  last  time  I  ever  saw  him,  and  after  he  heard  what  was  said 
here,  remarked  to  me  as  he  went  out,  '  Well,  I  might  as  well 
retire ;  the  temperance  cause  is  in  good  hands ;  I  think  we 
can  safely  leave  it  there.'  ...  A  certain  class  of  reformers 
have  a  theory  that  the  way  to  destroy  low  dives  is  by  high 
license.  These  men  say,  '  Why  cannot  we  unite,  bring  to- 
gether all  the  temperance  forces—  the  license  men  and  the 
Prohibitionists,  the  high-license  men  and  the  low-license  men? 
Why  cannot  we  all  unite,  and  present  a  solid  front?'  Why 
not?  Because  two  men  cannot  pull  in  the  same  direction 
when  one  has  his  face  toward  the  north  and  the  other  has  his 
face  toward  the  south.  There  is  just  the  difference  between 
license  and  prohibition.  They  pull  in  opposite  directions,  and 
there  is  no  use  to  try  to  compromise  or  bridge  over  the  diffi- 
culty. I  remember  that  Frances  Power  Cobbe  tells  us  that 
she  heard  two  Irishmen  talking  in  London,  and  that  one  of 
them  said  to  a  stranger,  '  Can  you  tell  me  how  far  it  is  to 
Hampstead  Heath?  '  '  Ten  miles,'  was  the  reply.  He  turned 
to  his  friend  and  said,  '  That  makes  it  five  miles  apiece ;  we 
can  easily  do  that.'  How  far  is  it  to  the  abolition  of  the 
liquor  traffic?     The  whole  length  of  prohibition.     We  must 


114  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

go  the  whole  distance,  every  one  of  us.  It  is  no  use  to  divide 
it  up  between  high  license  and  low  license.  We  have  got  to 
go  the  whole  way." 

At  every  opportunity  he  bore  testimony  against  the  un- 
righteous traffic.  "There  is  no  matter  nearer  my  heart,"  he 
wrote  to  a  Kansas  judge  whom  he  was  urging  to  take  charge 
of  certain  resolutions  on  the  subject  at  the  annual  denomi- 
national gathering,  "  than  the  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic. 
If  you  will  come  to  Chicago  and  take  the  stroke-oar,  I  will 
pull  behind  you  to  the  best  of  my  abihty."  And  at  another 
meeting  of  the  same  character  in  Boston,  when  a  humble 
brother  with  a  sound  conscience  introduced  out  of  due  course 
a  resolution  protesting  against  the  exportation  of  Medford 
rum  to  West  Africa  and  was  duly  suppressed  by  the  scrupu- 
lous parliamentarian  in  the  chair,  Gordon  started  to  his  feet 
with  the  exclamation,  "  Order  or  no  order,  we  cannot  as 
Christians  afford  to  table  that  resolution!"  The  protest  was 
carried  with  a  cheer. 

His  political  connections  during  the  last  decade  of  his  life 
were  determined  by  his  convictions  on  this  point.  With 
Arnold,  he  had  "  an  intense  abhorrence  of  all  party  ties  save 
that  one  tie  which  binds  a  man  to  the  party  of  Christ  against 
wickedness."  Moral  issues  with  him  transcended  all  others. 
The  defeat  or  victory  of  either  of  the  dominant  "  realm-ruining 
parties  "  was,  he  felt,  a  matter  of  comparative  unimportance. 
When  the  Prohibition  party,  therefore,  was  organized  in  1884, 
he  joined  himself  to  it,  assisted  in  the  establishment  of  its 
organ,  the  New  York  "  Voice,"  cont^"juted  to  its  campaign 
funds,  and  spoke  repeatedly  at  its  public  meetings.  It  was  a 
period  of  heated  controversy.  The  defection  of  a  large  con- 
tingent of  voters  from  the  Republican  party  resulted  in  its 
defeat  for  the  first  time  in  a  quarter-century.  Much  petty 
persecution  of  Prohibitionists  followed.  Ministers  who  had 
not  been  cajoled   by   the  "  catnip-tea  resolutions "   of  the 


REFORM  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  AND   STATE  115 

politicians  were  crowded  out  of  their  churches.  The  leaders 
in  the  secession  were  hung  or  burned  in  effigy.  Warmth  of 
opinion  was  engendered  between  friends  who  disagreed.  We 
get  a  suggestion  of  this  in  the  following  letter : 

"  I  was  sorry  after  you  left  that  I  had  my  discussion  on  the 
issues  of  the  day.  It  is  a  time  of  deep  agitation,  and  there 
are  great  issues  at  stake.  It  will  not  be  always  easy  to  keep 
cordial  feelings  between  friends  who  differ.  I  sympathize  with 
your  tender  regard  for  the  old  party.  As  long  as  I  read  only 
the  Boston  'Journal'  I  felt  very  much  the  same.  But  I 
have  been  reading  widely  since  I  came  home  and  examining 
carefully,  and  I  have  perfect  rest  and  peace  in  the  position 
which  I  have  taken.  I  believe  that  in  the  providence  of  God 
the  time  has  come  for  the  readjustment  of  parties.  That  re- 
adjustment may  come  through  the  setting  aside  of  some  things 
that  are  dear  to  us,  but  I  pray  God  it  may  come. 

"  I  have  not  the  slightest  desire  to  change  you,  for  I  know 
you  are  as  set  as  I  am  in  what  you  believe.  But  I  want  you 
to  read  all  sides,  that  you  may  see  your  pastor  is  not  utterly 
unreasonable  and  erratic.  So  will  you  kindly  read  some 
things  which  I  may  send  you  from  time  to  time?  You  will 
find  them  interesting. 

"To-day  is  the  anniversary  of  our  marriage.      Wendell 

Phillips  told  me  that  had  it  not  been  for  his  wife,  he  might 

not  have  been  an  antislavery  man.     I  think  my  wife's  clear, 

strong  convictions,  coupled  with  her  self-denying  work  for  the 

wretched  victims  of  drink,  have  done  not  a  little  to  confirm 

my  convictions. 

"  Yours  cordially, 

"A.  J.  Gordon." 

Gordon's  opinions  on  questions  of  moral  and  social  reform 
always  rang  true  like  a  bell  without  flaw,  on  whatever  side 


Il6  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

they  were  struck.  The  extinction  of  the  saloon,  the  relief  of 
the  unemployed,  unrestrained  freedom  of  speech,  the  emanci- 
pation of  women,  the  protection  of  Chinese  immigrants,  the 
defense  of  the  secular,  State-controlled  schools  against  ultra- 
montanism — for  all  these  things  he  spoke  as  only  a  man  of 
positive  religious  convictions  can.  He  was,  as  he  said  of 
another,  a  citizen  "with  iron  in  his  blood  and  blood  in  his 
cheek,  who  could  strike  vigorously  for  the  right  and  blush 
visibly  for  the  wrong."  *  Scores  of  times  did  he  confront  legis- 
lative committees  in  the  green  room  of  the  State  capitol  or  in 
the  chambers  of  the  city  council  to  plead  for  some  just  law 
or  to  protest  against  some  iniquitous  measure.  His  cham- 
pionship of  woman's  cause  was  constant  and  chivalric. 
Those  who  speak  of 

"  Women  sobbing  out  of  sight 
Because  men  make  the  laws," 

run  the  risk,  perhaps,  of  seeming  strained  in  their  opinions  and 
even  fanatical  to  people  with  quiet  homes  and  a  protected 
family  life.  It  is  the  experiences  in  bare  garrets,  the  pastoral 
contacts  with  unobserved  though  none  the  less  sadly  existent 
suffering  among  women,  which  teach  wisdom  on  this  point. 
That  women,  therefore,  might  have  opportunity  not  merely  to 
correct  the  laws  which  men  make,  but  to  pass  others  which 
they  have  not  made  and  seem  not  to  care  to  make — laws  for 
the  protection  of  girlhood,  for  the  relief  of  women  wage- 
earners,  for  the  defense  of  woman's  kingdom,  the  home, 
against  our  licensed  Kurds,  the  saloon-keepers — he  advocated 
their  complete  enfranchisement  and  their  entrance  into  every 
political  and  social  privilege  enjoyed  by  man. 

*  Memorial  address,  Hon.  Richard  Fletcher,  Supreme  Court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. 


CHAPTER  IX 


ON   THE    HIGHWAYS 


Arrested  for  preaching  on  Boston  Common — The  New  England  Evangeli- 
zation Society — How  to  reach  the  unchurched — Address  at  Plymouth, 
"Forefathers'  Day  " 

IN  the  June  of  1885  an  incident  occurred  which  illustrates 
how  willingly  this  most  unobtrusive  and  modest  of  men 
stood  when  necessary,  even  at  the  expense  of  much  personal 
humiliation,  for  the  common  rights  of  American  citizenship. 
"  For  the  simplest,  devoutest,  and  most  peaceful  preaching  of 
the  word  of  the  Son  of  man  "  on  Boston  Common  Dr.  Gor- 
don was  summoned  to  court  and  fined  by  the  same  city 
government  which,  as  if  to  emphasize  the  deep  gulf  fixed  be- 
tween the  instincts  and  purposes  of  the  Irish  Catholic  and 
American  Protestant  elements  in  the  community,  was  honor- 
ing almost  at  the  same  time  a  vulgar  and  brutal  pugilist  with 
a  public  meeting  in  Music  Hall  and  with  a  public  presenta- 
tion by  the  mayor  *  of  a  diamond-studded  belt.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  further,  as  suggestive  of  the  amiable  tendencies  of 
Romanism  and  as  disclosing  the  real  hand  back  of  the  puppets 
of  the  city  council,  that  five  years  after  this,  when  for  the  first 
time  the  Irish  canaille  controlled  the  entire  city  government 
of  Boston,  a  Romanist  t  who  had  been  made  chief  of  police 
in  Calcutta  signahzed  his  regime  by  forbidding  open-air 
preaching  in  that  city  and  by  arresting  the  venerable  Caius 
McDonald  for  a  violation  of  the  ordinance.     Semper  et  tibique! 

*  Hon.  Hugh  O'Brien.  t  Sir  Henry  L.  Harrison. 

117 


Ii8  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Gordon's  arrest  was  only  one  in  a  series.  Mr.  H.  L.  Has- 
tings had  been  put  in  jail  for  reading  on  Flagstaff  Hill  with- 
out note  or  comment  passages  from  three  chapters  of  the 
Bible.  Rev.  W.  L.  Davis,  for  similar  breaches  of  the  public 
peace,  was  imprisoned  for  more  than  a  year  in  close  confine- 
ment in  Murderers'  Row,  Charlestown  Prison,  allowed  no  ex- 
ercise, insulted  by  turnkeys,  and  given  insufficient  food  until 
scurvy  set  in.  Tract-distribution  was  stopped  by  the  police. 
A  worthy  and  devout  lady  was  arrested  and  taken  to  a  police 
station  merely  because  she  had  sung  a  portion  of  a  hymn  to  a 
poor  unfortunate  on  the  street.  Petty  persecutions  of  others 
engaged  in  outdoor  religious  work  followed.  The  legal  justi- 
fication for  these  outrages  was  deduced  from  an  ordinance 
passed  during  the  Civil  War  forbidding  meetings  on  public 
grounds  unless  permission  had  been  previously  granted. 
From  1862  to  1882  such  permits  were  easily  procured.  In 
1882  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  which  for  fifteen  years  had  conducted 
open-air  services,  applied  for  them  as  usual.  They  were  re- 
fused. In  1883  they  appHed  again  and  were  refused.  In 
1884  their  application  to  the  chairman  of  the  Common  Coun- 
cil was  not  even  answered.  The  following  year  they  organized 
a  meeting  on  the  Common  to  test  the  action  of  the  munici- 
pal authorities.  It  was  for  addressing  this  meeting  that  Dr. 
Gordon  was  arrested  and  fined.  In  court  Judge  Adams  de- 
clared that  the  by-law  precluded  objectionable  persons  alone 
from  speaking,  and  that  any  responsible  people  could  obtain 
permits.  This  decision  made  it  clear  that  the  committee  on 
the  Common  had  administered  the  statute  in  question  arbi- 
trarily. Appeal  was  immediately  made  for  permission  to  use 
the  Common  during  the  remainder  of  the  season.  This  was 
denied  until  legal  measures  were  taken  to  obtain  it. 

That  such  scandalous  crimes  against  free  speech  should  be 
committed,  of  all  places,  on  Boston  Common,  where  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-five  years  before   Whitefield   had   addressed 


ON   THE  HIGHWAY  119 

thirty  thousand  people  in  the  open  air  and  where  every  foot 
of  ground  was  consecrated  to  freedom  by  the  memories  of  the 
Revolution,  was  sufficiently  humiliating.  That  they  should 
be  perpetrated  upon  men  whose  traditions  of  personal  Hberty 
ran  back  to  the  folkmotes  of  the  German  forests,  traditions 
enunciated  once  for  all  and  in  classic  form  by  John  Milton 
and  Jeremy  Taylor  two  hundred  years  before,  was  a  further 
aggravation.  But  that  the  perpetrators  should  be  irredeem- 
able aliens,  whose  fathers  were  savage  kerns  in  the  peat-bogs 
long  after  Naseby  and  Lexington,  was  perhaps  the  most 
odious  feature  in  the  whole  proceeding.  Public  indignation 
was  aroused.  Professor  Austin  Phelps  wrote :  "  Freedom  of 
speech  is  too  sacred  a  right  to  be  subjected  to  the  petty 
tyrannies  of  the  O's  and  Mac's  so  significantly  numerous  in 
the  nomenclature  of  our  city  government.  Restriction  of 
free  speech  on  Boston  Common  is  as  much  out  of  place  there 
as  a  whipping-post."  Dr.  Brooks  and  Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody 
wrote  in  a  similar  vein.  Petitions  for  the  repeal  of  the  ordi- 
nance, numerously  signed  by  representative  men,  were  sent  in. 
The  city  government,  under  the  pressure,  granted  four  even- 
ings for  hearings  on  the  subject  of  street-preaching.  These 
meetings,  which  packed  City  Hall  to  the  roof,  were  a  memo- 
rable protest  against  an  obnoxious  municipal  regulation. 
Speeches  in  behalf  of  repeal  were  made  by  Dr.  A.  H.  Plumb, 
Dr.  Brooke  Herford,  Joseph  Cook,  and  A.  J.  Gordon.  The 
gag-law  was  not  rescinded,  however,  and  still  stands  a  menace 
to  liberty  of  speech.  But  thanks  to  this  vigorous  agitation 
against  it,  it  has  practically  fallen  into  disuse. 

Open-air  preaching  was  not,  then,  to  be  suppressed  by  an 
Hibernicized  city  government.  The  New  England  Evange- 
listic Association,  founded  within  eighteen  months,  made  it  an 
especial  feature  of  its  work.  Dr.  Gordon  frequently  spoke 
under  its  auspices,  now  in  Roxbury  from  the  tail  of  a  cart, 
now  by  the  arching  surf  at  Crescent  Beach,  now  on  the  Com- 


120  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

mon  itself.  For  many  years  he  served  as  chairman  of  the 
examining  committee,  taking  great  interest  in  the  selection 
and  guidance  of  young  men  and  women  in  these  outdoor 
and  house-to-house  enterprises.  He  always  cherished  a  deep 
interest  in  efforts  to  reach  the  unevangeHzed,  and  lamented 
the  drift  of  churches,  so  general  in  American  cities,  from 
needy  into  prosperous  localities.  Writing  of  the  situation  in 
Boston,  he  said : 

"...  The  usage  has  been  for  the  churches  to  retreat  be- 
fore the  incoming  tide  of  poverty  and  illiteracy  as  it  has 
swept  over  the  older  part  of  the  city,  and  to  cover  their  retreat 
by  throwing  out  a  picket-line  of  mission  stations.  Only  two 
original  churches  remain  on  the  ground  first  occupied  by  the 
gospel  in  Boston.  The  sepulchers  of  Increase  and  Cotton 
Mather  are  with  us  to  this  day ;  they  sleep  hard  by  the  scene 
of  their  useful  labors.  But  the  churches  to  which  they  minis- 
tered have  moved  on  with  all  their  neighbors,  except  old 
Christ  Church  and  the  later  Baptist  Bethel.  Nothing  so 
tends  to  disaffect  the  common  people  with  the  gospel  as  to 
move  the  church  away  from  them,  on  the  ground  that  it 
must  follow  wealth  and  fashion.  I  cannot  tell  how  many 
non-church-goers  I  have  met  whose  sore  .spot  I  have  found, 
by  probing,  to  be  just  this :  '  The  church  left  me,  and  so  I  left 
the  church ;  they  cared  nothing  for  me,  and  I  care  nothing 
for  them.'  It  is  a  natural  retaliation  for  the  violation  of  that 
divine  law, '  The  rich  and  poor  meet  together :  the  Lord  is  the 
maker  of  them  all.'  Dr.  Chalmers  used  to  say,  'A  house- 
going  minister  makes  a  church-going  people.'  Of  course. 
Let  the  people  see  that  the  church  cares  enough  for  them  to 
follow  them  into  their  homes  with  its  ministry  of  help  and 
blessing,  and  to  stay  by  those  homes  for  their  spirituj^^  pro- 
tection, and  they  will  not  desert  it.  The  law  is  just  as  in- 
evitable that  a  house-leaving  church  will  make  a  church-leav- 
ing people.     Most  of  the  churches  that  were  born  at  the  north 


ON  THE  HIGHWAYS  I2I 

end  of  the  city  are  now  huddled  together  at  the  south  end 
and  on  the  Back  Bay — the  newest  portions  of  the  town — so 
close  that  they  can  almost  catch  each  other's  eavesdroppings. 
Some  of  them  ought  to  have  moved ;  but  some  ought  to  have 
remained,  or  at  least  to  have  left  their  sanctuaries  with  a 
sufficient  body  to  maintain  worship.  Now  we  are  planting 
missions  among  this  large  unchurched  population.  But  the 
original  hold  can  never  be  recovered  in  this  way.  Move  out 
your  palace-cars  from  the  assembled  passengers,  and  then 
back  in  a  cheaper  train  with  a  more  economical  service,  and 
you  need  not  be  siurprised  to  hear  them  say,  '  No,  thank  you, 
we  do  not  ride  second-class.'  So  we  do  not  doubt  that  a 
considerable  number  among  the  honest  and  decent  middle 
class  have  been  estranged  from  the  sanctuary  by  this  careless 
habit  of  church-moving,  the  tabernacle  following  those  whom 
it  most  needs  instead  of.  staying  with  those  who  most  need  it." 
After  describing  some  from  his  church  who  preach  out 
of  doors,  he  goes  on  to  say :  "  These  have  led  the  way 
which  I  verily  believe  the  ministry  ought  to  follow.  I  have 
watched  them  going  upon  the  Common,  where  thousands 
gather  on  a  summer  day,  or  upon  the  circus  ground,  thronged 
with  an  expectant  crowd  waiting  for  a  show ;  and  as  they 
have  lifted  up  their  voices  hundreds  have  gathered  about  and 
listened  with  utmost  attention  to  their  words.  Here  is  a 
lesson.  These  people  could  not  be  drawn  to  church,  but 
they  listen  when  the  church  is  brought  to  them ;  and  when  the 
crowd  disperses  there  is  generally  left  a  residuum  of  those 
who  would  like  to  hear  further,  and  who,  upon  conversation, 
promise  to  meet  the  speaker  at  the  church  next  Sabbath 
morning.  What  now  if  the  great  body  of  ordained  preachers 
would  go  out  each  Sunday  afternoon  upon  the  commons  and 
squares  and  public  gardens  and  parks  and  tell  the  simple 
story  of  the  gospel?  I  know  of  no  solution  of  the  problem. 
How  shall  our  churches  reach  the  masses?  at  once  so  simple 


122  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

and  so  practicable  as  this.  And  I  would  have  each  minister 
go  as  the  pastor  of  his  church.  Let  the  people  know  that 
the  church  cares  enough  for  them  to  send  its  ministers  after 
them. 

"...  We  talk  about  the  dangerous  classes.  The  danger 
lies  in  the  separation  of  the  classes— those  who  are  the  salt  of 
the  earth  keeping  by  themselves  instead  of  coming  into  con- 
tact with  that  which  tends  to  corruption.  If  the  great  mass 
of  Christians  would  come  into  heart-to-heart  relation  with  the 
so-called  dangerous  class  much  might  be  done  to  change  its 
character.  But  here  is  where  we  fail.  We  have  too  many 
family  churches  and  too  few  missionary  churches.  Custom  is 
inexorable  in  its  demands,  and  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  for 
us  to  admit  the  propriety  or  utility  of  side-tracks  running  off 
from  the  main  lines  of  our  ministry  to  reach  the  unprivileged. 
We  praise  God  indeed  that  our  Redeemer  is  one  who  can 
have  compassion  on  the  ignorant  and  on  them  that  are  out 
of  the  way ;  but  how  far  we  should  go  out  of  the  way  is  quite 
another  question.  The  regular  thoroughfare  can  command 
unlimited  capital  for  its  extension,  and  no  matter  how  costly 
the  rolling-stock  of  quartet  choirs,  Gothic  arches,  memorial 
windows,  and  all  that,  the  funds  can  generally  be  raised  for 
it.  But  for  an  unsurveyed  and  unchartered  extension  into  the 
highways  and  hedges  it  is  always  very  difficult  to  get  stock- 
holders. The  reason  is  that  we  shrink  from  the  unusual  and 
the  extraordinary.  Fashion  controls  our  religion  very  much 
as  it  controls  the  cut  of  our  garments.  The  most  grotesque 
styles  are  worn  upon  our  backs  if  custom  so  order,  and  the 
most  absurd  contrivances  of  medieval  art  are  sanctioned  in 
our  churches  if  they  are  laid  down  on  the  fashion-plate  of 
ecclesiastical  architecture.  Custom  is  a  pope  whose  bulls  few 
have  the  courage  to  resist." 

On  the  19th  of  December  of  this  year  Dr.  Gordon  spoke 
at  the  annual  Forefathers'  celebration  in  old  Plymouth.     The 


ON   THE  HIGinVAYS  123 

speakers  were  drawn  from  various  professions  and  from  all 
denominations,  James  Russell  Lowell  being  the  most  distin- 
guished. There  was  there,  as  usual,  a  large  contingent  of  the 
liberal  stripe— as  unconscious  apparently  of  any  incongruity 
in  their  celebration  of  the  heroic  faith  of  Puritanism  as 
Romans  of  the  Lower  Empire  might  have  been  in  honoring 
the  fathers  of  the  Twelve  Tables.  For  the  dry  gravelly  bed 
may  indeed  continue  to  believe  itself  the  stream  long  after 
the  cooling  waters  have  sought  other  channels.  To  such 
Gordon's  address  seems  largely  directed : 

"  I  count  myself  highly  honored  in  being  called  to  partici- 
pate in  the  festivities  of  this  occasion.  For  though  I  cannot 
trace  my  lineage,  natural  or  ecclesiastical,  to  Plymouth  Rock, 
in  common  with  all  New  Englanders,  I  cherish  a  profound 
interest  in  its  history  and  principles.  You  remember  that  in 
speaking  of  the  rock  which  Moses  smote  in  the  wilderness  to 
give  water  to  the  Israelites  the  Scriptures  call  it '  that  spiritual 
rock  which  followed  them.'  Plymouth  Rock  does  not  remain 
in  Plymouth  alone ;  it  has  followed  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims 
in  all  their  migrations,  its  grain  and  grit  wrought  into  their 
constitution,  and  rendering  them  the  most  stalwart  race  that 
has  yet  appeared  on  this  continent.  And  without  desiring 
that  this  noble  rock  should  grow  less,  I  do  wish  that  a  strong 
solution,  a  powerful  tincture  of  it  might  be  prepared  and  ad- 
ministered far  and  wide  to  those  politicians  without  principle, 
to  those  civilians  without  conscience,  and  to  those  clergymen 
without  creed,  in  which  this  generation  so  abounds.  Then, 
perchance,  observ^ers  like  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  might  not 
have  to  lament  the  '  dapper  liberalities,'  as  he  names  them, 
which  have  rendered  our  generation  so  '  frivolous  and  ungirt  as 
compared  with  the  former  and  Puritan  age.' 

"  Mr.  President,  it  was  my  fortune  to  be  hatched  ecclesi- 
astically on  Roger  Williams's  rock,  situated  in  Narragansett 
Bay.     I  would  not  say  to  the  sons  of  the  Puritans,  '  Our  rock 


124  ADOKIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

is  not  as  your  rock.'  It  is  as  your  rock,  the  same  geological 
and  theological  formation.  And  while  the  adherents  of  the 
'  standing  order '  are  complaining  that  Plymouth  Rock  is  dis- 
integrating and  crumbling  in  the  atmosphere  of  modem  doubt 
and  liberal  thought,  I  am  glad  to  say  that  our  rock  is  as  firm 
and  compact  as  ever,  so  that  we  could  undertake  to  furnish 
underpinning  for  any  number  of  new  chvuches  and  new  States, 
provided  the  demand  is  for  '  a  church  without  a  bishop  and  a 
state  without  a  king.'  And  this  suggests  a  theory  of  ecclesi- 
astical evolution  which  I  have  formulated,  but  have  never 
before  ventured  to  make  pubhc.  The  followers  of  Roger 
WiUiams,  after  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  have  grown  to 
two  milhons,  and  the  principles  of  Roger  Williams — soul- 
liberty  and  religious  toleration — have  been  gradually  appro- 
priated by  all  churches  and  governments  till  they  have  be- 
come almost  universally  accepted.  This  is  certainly  a  re- 
markable triumph.  How  shall  we  account  for  it?  Well,  you 
remember  that  quaint  old  Thomas  Fuller  explains  figuratively 
the  wide-spread  diffusion  of  the  doctrines  of  Wickliffe,  and 
that  Wordsworth  puts  the  same  into  verse,  telling  us  how  the 
reformer's  body  was  dug  up  and  burned  by  his  enemies,  and 
how,  his  ashes  being  cast  into  the  little  brook,  it  bore  them 

"  '  Into  the  Avon ;  Avon  to  the  tide 

Of  Severn ;   Severn  to  the  narrow  seas ; 

Into  main  ocean  they.   .   .   . 

Thus  the  bold  teacher's  doctrine,  sanctified 

By  truth,  shall  spread  throughout  the  world  dispersed.' 

"  It  was  even  so  with  Roger  Williams.  He  was  buried  on 
one  of  the  slopes  of  Providence  Hill.  An  apple-tree  grew 
above  his  grave,  spreading  its  branches  widely  and  striking  its 
roots  deeply,  and  bearing  year  by  year  a  heavy  burden  of 
fruit.  How  widely  that  fruit  was  scattered  and  eaten,  how  its 
seeds  were  diffused  and  reproduced  here  and  there,  I  need 


ON   THE  HIGHWAYS  125 

not  conjecture.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  while  a  college  student 
in  that  goodly  city  I  saw  the  bones  of  Roger  WiUiams  dis- 
interred, and,  strange  to  relate,  it  was  discovered  that  the  tap- 
root of  that  apple-tree  had  struck  down  and  followed  the 
whole  length  of  the  stubborn  Baptist's  spinal  column,  appro- 
priating and  absorbing  its  substance  till  not  a  vestige  of  the 
vertebrae  remained.  And  thus  that  invincible  backbone  of 
Roger  Williams,  whom  a  critical  Massachusetts  statesman 
stigmatized  as  '  contentiously  conscientious,'  was  '  spread 
throughout  the  world  dispersed,'  and  reproduced  in  genera- 
tions of  his  adherents.  Blessed  are  they  who  are  so  for- 
tunate as  to  have  their  theology  enriched  by  such  strong 
phosphites. 

"  But,  Mr.  President,  I  must  not  obtrude  family  issues  into  this 
most  catholic  celebration.  More  can  truthfully  be  said  to  the 
praise  of  the  worthies  whose  names  we  honor  to-day  than  any 
of  us  shall  have  time  to  express.  In  the  first  place,  of  whom 
could  it  ever  more  truly  be  said  that  '  they  builded  better  than 
they  knew '?  Who  supposes  they  ever  dreamed  of  the  noble 
republic  whose  germ  and  principles  they  bore  in  the  hold  of 
the  '  Mayflower'?  They  were  simply  dutiful  servants  of  the 
Most  High,  not  architects  of  their  own  fortunes ;  and,  like 
Abraham,  they  obeyed  the  voice  of  God  and  went  out,  not 
knowing  whither  they  went,  that  they  might  inherit  a  land 
which  he  should  afterward  give  them.  Had  they  been  mind- 
ful of  that  country  whence  they  came  out  they  might  have 
had  opportunity  to  return,  but  now  they  sought  a  better 
country,  and  God  gave  them  one  which  far  surpassed  their 
thoughts.  I  remember  to  have  read  that,  years  after  its  com- 
pletion, General  Jackson's  campaign  at  New  Orleans  was 
sharply  criticized  in  Congress,  and  Judge  Douglass,  in  a 
masterly  speech,  vindicated  it.  Afterward  meeting  the  judge, 
the  general  cordially  thanked  him,  and  said,  '  I  always  knew 
that  I  was  right  in  what  I  did  at  New  Orleans,  but  I  never 


126  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

knew  why  I  was  right  until  I  read  your  speech.'  The  remark 
may  awaken  a  smile,  but  there  is  something  deeply  philosophi- 
cal in  it.  The  thinker  must  come  after  the  actor  to  interpret 
his  conduct  for  him.  As  the  great  master  takes  up  some 
rude  melody  of  the  troubadour  and  sets  it  to  music,  so  thinkers 
have  to  set  to  logic  the  deeds  of  the  world's  great  actors.  In- 
stinct is  greater  than  reason,  because  it  reads  the  mind  of 
God,  yet  knows  it  not.  It  was  a  divine  instinct  which  guided 
the  helm  of  the  '  Mayflower,'  and  it  was  a  divine  instinct 
which  guided  the  footsteps  of  the  Pilgrims  to  this  spot ;  and 
it  is  for  us  to-day  to  exult  in  the  clear  reasonableness  of  what 
they  did. 

"  In  another  sense,  these  forefathers  were  great  thinkers,  for 
they  thought  God's  thoughts  after  him,  careless  of  the  con- 
tradiction which  those  thoughts  might  bring  to  our  human 
logic.  This  was  their  intellectual  heroism,  that  they  believed 
God  though  they  thereby  made  every  man  a  liar.  It  is  the 
fashion  nowadays  to  admire  the  Puritan  and  decry  Puritanism. 
But  it  was  the  doctrine  that  made  the  man,  and  not  the  man 
the  doctrine.  Iron  in  the  thinker's  brain  is  just  as  needful,  if 
he  is  to  grasp  and  master  the  dark  problems  of  the  universe, 
as  iron  in  the  blacksmith's  blood  is  needful  if  he  is  to  weld 
and  mould  the  iron  bar  which  he  holds  in  his  hand.  And 
our  Puritan  fathers  had  the  iron  from  the  hills  of  eternal  truth 
so  wrought  into  their  blood  that  they  have  sent  down  a  cur- 
rent of  stalwart  convictions  which  a  score  of  generations  have 
not  outgrown.  May  this  be  the  lesson  which  we  gain  from 
our  visit  to  this  New  England  shrine  to-day — that  fidehty  to 
God  is  the  surest  way  of  fidelity  to  man.  The  truest  humanity 
is  that  which  is  born  of  the  truest  divinity.  And  therefore,  if 
we  would  reahze  the  prayer  of  George  Fox,  the  Quaker— of 
being  'baptized  into  a  sense  of  all  conditions'— let  us  know 
that  we  must  be  baptized  into  God's  truth  as  well  as  into 
God's  love.    This,  then,  shall  be  my  closing  sentiment :  as  the 


ON  THE  HIGHWAYS 


127 


Pilgrim  fathers  are  marching  on  year  by  year  in  the  culture 
and  wealth  and  greatness  which  their  sons  have  wrought  out 
after  them,  may  the  Pilgrim  sons  fall  back  year  by  year  upon 
the  piety  and  virtue  and  conscience  which  their  fathers  wrought 
out  before  them." 


CHAPTER   X 

THE    "WATCHWORD" 
The  establishment  of  the  "  Watchword" — Its  aim,  scope,  and  history 

FEW  question  the  degeneracy  of  the  American  daily  news- 
paper and  the  degrading  influence  which  it  exerts  in  our 
social  system.  It  has  become  a  hoarse-throated  tale-monger, 
its  output  being  not  much  better  than  an  endlessly  issued 
chronique  scandaleuse.  This  for  the  news  column.  The  edi- 
torial page  also  exhibits  the  most  unworthy  traits.  The 
proverbial  timidity  of  capital  finds  here  its  complete  expres- 
sion. The  daily  paper  would  never  for  truth's  sake  offend 
the  smallest  fraction  of  its  paying  constituency.  It  is  as  cal- 
culating as  those  state-churchmen  who,  as  Marx  says,  would 
give  up  the  entire  Thirty-nine  Articles  rather  than  one  thirty- 
ninth  of  their  income.  It  is  ever  heard  ''bawling  forth  judg- 
ments unashamed  all  day  long,"  and  these  judgments  are 
shaped  notoriously  by  the  counting-room.  The  result,  of 
course,  is  the  extreme  of  unreliabiHty  and  a  proneness  to 
darken  the  counsel  of  the  "leader"  by  words  without  con- 
viction. 

This  decadence  of  the  secular  press  has  been  a  standing  in- 
vitation to  religious  weeklies  to  assume  a  leadership  and  to 
acquire  a  confidence  which  the  daily  paper  has  long  since 
forfeited.  They  have  the  more  naturally  taken  upon  them- 
selves this  leadership  inasmuch  as  the  receding  emphasis  laid 
on  denominational  distinctions  has,  in  some  degree,  atrophied 

128 


THE  "IVATCI/IVOKD"  129 

a  former  function  and  given  them  scope  for  the  new  work. 
But  this  important  and  valuable  service  has  deflected  attention 
from  a  still  more  necessary  and  too  easily  neglected  line  of 
teaching.  We  find  very  httle  stimulus  to  the  culture  of  the 
inner  life  in  the  average  religious  weekly.  It  is  occupied  with 
exterior  church  life,  with  missions,  education,  the  affairs  of 
the  denomination,  and,  in  an  increasing  ratio,  with  the  news 
of  the  whole  swinging  globe. 

This  semi-secularization  of  the  religious  press  and  the  clear 
need  of  some  publication  entirely  given  up  to  the  things  of 
the  closet  led  Gordon  to  issue,  in  the  fall  of  1878,  an  unob- 
trusive httle  monthly  devoted  wholly  to  the  spiritual  life.  The 
name  adopted  was  the  "  Watchword,"  and  the  motto  at  the 
head  of  the  first  page  read :  "  Watch  ye :  stand  fast  in  the 
faith.     Let  all  things  be  done  with  charity." 

The  first  number  began  with  a  commentary  upon  these 
words,  into  which  was  woven  a  statement  of  the  purpose  of  the 
undertaking.  After  remarking  upon  the  apparent  hardihood 
involved  in  the  launching  of  another  religious  paper,  he  says  : 

"  The  primitive  faith  is  proclaimed  by  a  great  multitude 
both  of  preachers  and  of  papers,  but  as  there  can  never  be  too 
many  engaged  in  setting  forth  the  doctrines  of  grace,  we  may 
be  welcomed  in  undertaking  the  same  work  with  methods 
somewhat  different  from  those  in  general  use.  We  propose  to 
make  use  of  Bible  readings  and  brief  Scripture  expositions  and 
narrations  of  personal  experiences  of  the  work  of  grace,  thus 
presenting  the  doctrines  of  grace  biblically  rather  than  theo- 
logically, experimentally  rather  than  controversially. 

"  The  primitive  hope  we  believe  to  be  sadly  obscured  and 
neglected  by  the  great  mass  of  Christians  in  our  day.  That 
hope  in  the  apostolic  age  was  the  personal  reappearing  of  the 
Lord  from  heaven— '  looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  and  the 
glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ.'     To  the  first  disciples  this  event  was  imminent  and 


130  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

inspiring,  and  constituted  the  most  powerful  motive  to  activity 
and  consecration.  But  so  dark  is  the  ecUpse  into  which  this 
hope  has  been  thrown  that  its  avowal  is  almost  certain,  now- 
adays, to  bring  down  upon  one  the  charge  of  fanaticism. 
Braving  that  charge  and  rejoicing  profoundly  in  the  wonder- 
ful awakening  to  this  truth  which  the  last  twenty-five  years 
have  witnessed,  we  shall  have  much  to  say  upon  it  and  upon 
closely  related  topics. 

"  The  primitive  charity  we  may  in  slight  measure  illustrate 
and  magnify  if  in  the  discussion  of  these  and  kindred  themes 
we  shall  exhibit  that  forbearance  toward  those  who  differ  from 
us  which  we  conceive  to  be  according  to  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
Here  is  a  field,  certainly,  which  offers  magnificent  possibilities. 
There  is  a  commendable  zeal  for  soundness  in  the  faith  among 
many  of  our  religious  journals.  But  in  the  sharp  contention 
for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints  many  think  they 
hear  too  often  the  clash  of  carnal  weapons.  Soundness  in  the 
faith  by  all  means,  but  let  us  not  forget  the  injunction  of  the 
apostle  that  we  should  'be  sound  in  faith,  iti  charity,  in 
patience.'  'The  heart  is  the  best  theologian,'  it  has  been 
said ;  and  also,  we  may  add,  the  worst  heretic  when  it  de- 
fends the  truth  in  uncharity  and  bitterness." 

The  temper  of  the  new  pubhcation  was  deeply  Christian  and 
pietistic.  How  well  the  editor  succeeded  in  giving  practical 
expression  to  the  last  article  of  the  above  program  is  well 
known  by  all  who  ever  read  the  paper.  There  was,  however, 
no  loud  profession  of  undenominational  charity.  The  stereo- 
typed formulas  of  comprehension  were  altogether  wanting 
here.  The  spirit  of  fellowship  with  all  Christians  was  too 
deep  and  its  current  too  calmly  powerful  to  indulge  in  frothy 
and  declamatory  phrases. 

In  fact,  the  line  of  cleavage  followed  quite  other  than  de- 
nominational lines.  It  was  transverse,  grouping  associates 
and   contributors  from  all  churches,  whose  main  bond  of 


THE   "WATCHWORD''  131 

fellowship  seemed  to  be  the  love  of  the  Lord's  appearing. 
W.  S.  Rainsford,  Professor  Duffield  of  Princeton,  S.  H.  Tyng, 
Jr.,  George  C.  Needham,  and  W.  L.  Mackay  of  Hull,  Eng- 
land, were  among  the  contributors — a  pledge  of  able  and 
cathohc  management.  Its  clientele  was  extensive  among  that 
diaspora  of  patient  and  loving  souls  who,  in  distant  hamlet 
and  in  crowded  city,  walk  through  life  with  the  upward  gaze, 
cherishing  "the  hope."  To  them  it  was  a  silent,  freshening 
influence,  like  the  hidden  springs  and  veins  of  water  which 
percolate  from  the  mount  of  vision.  It  was  in  its  editorial 
writing  edifying,  full  of  sober,  lucid  reflection,  providing  that 
soul-nourishment,  that  bread  which  the  world  knows  not  of. 
It  was  full  of  meaty  expositions  of  Scripture,  quaint,  yet  not 
fantastic,  bearing  always  the  mark  of  deep  insight  and  singu- 
larly luminous  in  expression.  Short  sketches  of  the  lives  of 
saints,  of  missionaries,  and  of  martyrs  served  as  encouragement 
to  those  whose  lives  seemed  hopelessly  environed  with  com- 
monplace. There  were  frequent  quotations,  too,  from  those 
wonderfully  quaint  and  unfailingly  apposite  unfolders  of  the 
Word,  the  Puritan  divines  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  must 
have  been  a  careless  reader  indeed  who  has  not  seen,  at  one 
time  or  another,  the  faces  of  Marshall  and  of  Brook,  of 
Gurnall,  of  John  Owen,  of  Thomas  Manton,  of  Joseph  AUeine, 
peering  through  the  print  of  these  columns. 

There  was,  in  the  earlier  years,  a  special  column  for  minis- 
ters, replete  with  mingled  admonition  and  encouragement.  It 
was  here  that  Dr.  Gordon  sought  to  deepen  the  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility and  to  lay  bare  the  secrets  of  power,  to  stimulate 
hunger  for  souls  and  to  inculcate  interest  in  the  whole  world 
in  those  who  were  being  narrowed  by  the  centripetal  tendency 
of  parochial  duties. 

The  undertaking  was  not  begun  without  misgiving  on  the 
part  of  friends  and  family.  To  the  bantering  remark  that 
every  Httle  minister  sought,  as  his  ultimate  ambition,  to  have 


132  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON- 

an  "organ,"  he  would  reply  that  he  felt  as  clearly  called  to 
this  work  as  to  the  ministry.  It  is  difficult  to  express  what  it 
cost  in  every  direction.  It  was  conducted  in  quiet  defiance 
of  mercantile  principles.  He  spoke  of  much  of  the  writing 
which  appears  in  religious  weekhes,  flanked  by  columns  of 
questionable  advertising,  as  giving  the  impression  of  an  in- 
valid limping  between  crutches.  Advertisement,  as  diverting 
attention  from  the  purely  devotional  tone  of  the  paper,  and 
as  suggestive  of  money-making,  was  therefore  discarded.  For 
many  years  the  enterprise  was  conducted  at  a  financial  loss. 
The  expense  in  labor,  care,  and  personal  attention  was  in- 
computable, but  very  real  and  very  great.  The  experience  of 
hymn-book  making  had  left  Gordon  with  a  peculiar  nervous 
weakness  which  made  the  preparation  of  copy  almost  the 
severest  work  in  which  he  could  engage.  The  Monday  morn- 
ings devoted  to  this  work  were  the  most  painfully  laborious 
days  in  the  year.  "  Our  aim,"  he  remarks,  "  is  to  do  our  ut- 
most in  opening  the  Word  of  God  and  leading  our  readers 
into  evangelical  truth.  So  far  the  effort  has  not,  of  course, 
paid  financially,  but,  what  is  far  better,  it  has  cost.  Time, 
pains,  money,  and  labor  have  been  freely  given.  With  the 
multitude  of  religious  sheets  which  go  forth  every  week,  it  will 
still  be  a  question  with  many  whether  ours  is  called  for.  Each 
reader  must  now  decide  that  question  for  himself."  And 
then  he  adds  characteristically,  "We  do  not  propose,  as  the 
manner  of  some  is,  to  print  the  letters  of  commendation  which 
we  have  received.  That  would  seem  to  us  like  egotism.  We 
do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  '  editorial  we '  large  enough 
to  hide  a  man's  shame  when  he  gets  behind  it  to  praise  him- 
self, or  to  read  in  solemn  falsetto  the  compliments  which 
others  have  passed  upon  him.  The  injunction,  '  Let  another 
praise  thee,  and  not  thine  own  lips,'  is  certainly  violated  when 
we  repeat  another's  praises  in  an  assumed  tone  or  in  a  changed 
voice." 


CHAPTER  XI 


TRUTH    AND    COUNTERFEIT 


Christian  Science  —  Its  genesis  and  doctrine  —  Dr.  Gordon's  indictment 
of  it  —  Healing  by  faith  —  Remarkable  answers  to  prayer  in  Dr.  Gor- 
don's experience 

THE  early  eighties  saw  the  rise  and  development  of  a  new 
delusion  in  that  city  which  has  proved,  spite  of  its  claim 
to  the  highest  culture,  so  prolific  in  such  growths.  "  Christian 
Science  "  is  the  misnomer  by  which  it  goes.  Its  Christianity 
has  in  it  more  of  parody  than  of  actuality.  Of  science,  in  the 
accepted  sense  of  the  word,  there  is  not  even  what  the  chem- 
ists call  a  trace.  This  is  clear  from  a  cursory  reading  of  its 
text-book,  "  Science  and  Health,"  a  work  nebulous  to  the 
point  of  mystification,  badly  written,  and  bearing  in  its  own 
body  its  self-evidencing  refutation.  The  spring  of  this  super- 
stition is,  we  are  inclined  to  believe,  in  "  transcendentalism." 
We  recognize  the  old  Emersonian  "pass"  of  the  hand,  the 
worn  trick  of  subjectivism,  in  the  declaration,  for  example, 
that  "decaying  flower,  withering  grass,  blighted  and  gnarled 
oak,  ferocious  beasts,  sicknesses  of  all  sorts  and  all  qualities, 
are  but  the  falsities  of  matter,  the  changing  images  of  mortal 
mind;  not  in  reality  substance,  but  only  behef  in  it."  The 
elusive  opinions  of  the  Concord  philosophy  running  under- 
ground here  come  to  the  surface  again,  muddy,  defiled,  yet 
recognizable.  For  Gnosticism  runs  through  the  same  cycle 
in  Boston  as  in  Alexandria.  Thaumaturgy  ends  in  theurgy, 
lamblichus  succeeds  Plotinus,  Mrs.  Eddy  follows  Emerson 
and  Alcott. 

133 


134  A  DON/RAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

These  delusions  have  their  rise  and  fall  like  the  trajectory 
of  an  arrow,  reaching  the  heights  of  popular  interest  only  to 
drop  finally  into  obscurity  and  neglect.  It  was  so  with  spirit- 
ism, whose  great,  gloomy  fane  still  towers  on  a  prominent 
Boston  thoroughfare,  though  the  influence  of  its  uncanny 
creed  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past.  It  must  be  so  shordy  with 
this  new  wonder-working  system.  For,  as  if  its  own  claims 
to  be  an  inspired  commentary  on  Jesus'  words— a  new  reve- 
lation again  "  opened  to  humanity  after  a  long  night  of  mate- 
rialism (i.e.,  nineteen  centuries)  through  the  spiritual  under- 
standing," a  new  apocalypse  as  pretentious  as  that  of  Sweden- 
borg  or  of  the  Utah  Saints — were  not  enough  to  confute  and 
destroy  it,  it  has,  in  later  years,  developed  a  curious  special 
cuhus  of  which  the  author  of  "  Science  and  Health  "  seems 
to  be  the  subject.  Her  words  are  given  equal  authority  with 
those  of  Jesus  himself,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  impartiality 
with  which  quotations  from  her  book  alternate  with  those 
from  the  New  Testament  on  the  walls  of  the  "  First  Church 
of  Christ,  Scientist."  As  priestess  of  the  new  dispensation, 
and  as  revealer  of  the  arcana,  she  is  reverenced  with  almost 
Delphic  honors.  The  black  haircloth  rocking-chair  in  which 
her  book  was  written  is  an  object  of  veneration  by  the  sect. 
The  very  plumbing  of  her  boudoir  has  been  gold-plated,  while 
her  apartments  have  been  decorated  by  her  followers  with  an 
elegance  worthy  of  Schoenbrunn  or  Balmoral,  and  comically 
suggestive  of  Hood's  hues : 

"  Only  propose  to  blow  a  bubble, 
And  Lord!  what  thousands  will  subscribe  for  soap!" 

Surely  the  next  phase  of  the  movement  must  be  dissolution. 
There  can  be  nothing  beyond! 

In  the  April  "  Congregationalist  "  of  1885  appeared  a  long 
article  by  Gordon,  which,  circulated  later  by  the  thousand 
in  pamphlet  form,  proved  an  effective  antitoxin  for  the  cure 


TRUTH  AND   COUNTERFEIT 


»35 


of  this  wide-spread  malady.  The  clogged,  heavy,  illogical 
style,  weighted  with  a  pseudo-philosophical  phraseology,  is  cut 
through  and  through  by  this  keen  little  pamphlet,  clear  and 
clean  as  a  rapier,  till  nothing  remains  of  the  system  but  wav- 
ing, torn  shreds.  Its  subjective  and  unwarrantable  quotations 
of  Scripture  are  exposed.  This  in  itself  was  no  hard  task, 
however,  for  the  unreality  and  falsity  of  this  new  mongrel 
idealism  lies  bare  and  naked  upon  every  page  of  its  text-book. 

The  pamphlet  is  entitled  "  Christian  Science  tested  by 
Scripture."     From  it  we  make  these  excerpts : 

"  Whatever  results  this  system  may  effect  in  healing  the 
body,  it  has  given  grounds  for  the  suspicion  that,  as  affecting 
the  heart,  it  is  a  system  of  spiritual  malpractice  and  is  leading 
its  subjects  away  from  the  simple  faith  of  the  gospel  into  a 
vague  and  transcendental  misbelief.  It  is  indeed  an  insidious 
delusion.  Its  large  use  of  the  Bible,  its  strenuous  demand  for 
hohness  and  self-abnegation  in  its  disciples,  the  results  appa- 
rently effected  in  its  ministry  to  the  sick— these  are  powerful 
considerations  for  attracting  converts  by  giving  them  the  im- 
pression that  they  are  getting  some  finer  quality  of  Christianity. 
Its  philosophy,  briefly  stated,  is  this :  Evil  is  not ;  sin,  sick- 
ness, and  death  are  unreal ;  '  matter  and  the  mortal  body  are 
nothing  but  a  belief  and  illusion  ;  '  '  there  is  neither  a  personal 
Deity,  a  personal  devil,  nor  a  personal  man.'  Let  us  test  these 
propositions  by  Scripture. 


Christian  Science 

Jesus  never  ransomed  man  by 
paying  the  debt  that  sin  incurs ; 
whosoever  sins  must  suffer. — II., 
189. 

Sin  is  not  forgiven ;  we  cannot 
escape  its  penalty. — II.,  165. 


Holy  Scripture 

In  whom  we  have  redemption 
through  his  blood,  even  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins. — Col.  i.  14. 


If  we  confess  our  sins,  he  is  faith- 
ful and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins, 
and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unright- 
eousness.— I  John  i.  9. 


136 


ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 


Christian  Science 

Petitioning  a  personal  Deity  is 
a  misapprehension  of  the  source 
and  means  of  all  good  and  blessed- 
ness ;  therefore  it  cannot  be  bene- 
ficial.— II.,  170. 

Asking  God  to  pardon  sin  is  a 
vain  repetition  such  as  the  heathen 
use.  Habitual  goodness  is  praying 
without  ceasing. — II.,  173. 

The  belief  that  man  has  a  sepa- 
rate life  or  soul  from  God  is  the 
error  that  Jesus  came  to  destroy. — 
II.,  90. 

Science  decides  matter  or  the 
mortal  body  to  be  nothing  but  a 
belief  and  an  illusion. — II.,  193. 


Man  is  coeternal  and  coexistent 
with  God,  and  they  are  inseparable 
in  divine  science. — I.,  173. 


Holy  Scripture 

In  everything  by  prayer  and  sup- 
plication with  thanksgiving  let 
your  requests  be  made  known  unto 
God.— Phil.  iv.  6. 


For  thy  name's  sake  pardon 
mine  iniquity. — David,  Ps.  xxv.  11. 

And  forgive  us  our  sins. — Luke 
xi.  4. 

From  everlasting  to  everlasting 
thou  art  God. — Ps.  xc.  2. 

The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall 
die. — Ezek.  xviii.  20. 

Let  not  sin  therefore  reign  in 
your  mortal  body. — Rom.  vi.  12. 

He  shall  also  quicken  your  mor- 
tal bodies  by  his  Spirit  that  dvvelleth 
in  you. — Rom.  viii.  11. 

So  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image,  in  the  image  of  God  created 
he  him. — Gen.  i.  27. 


"  Beyond  these  palpable  contradictions  of  the  Word  of 
God,  we  must  confess  also  the  shock  which  it  gives  to  hear 
Jesus  constantly  spoken  of  as  a  metaphysician  and  demon- 
strator of  Christian  Science — 'the  most  scientific  man  that 
ever  trod  the  globe ;'  to  be  told  that  the  cause  of  his  agony  in 
the  garden  was  that  he  was  touched  with  '  the  utter  error  of  a 
belief  of  life  in  matter ' ;  that  on  the  cross  he  was  giving  the 
world  '  an  example  and  proof  of  divine  science ' ;  that  his 
Christianity  '  destroyed  sin,  sickness,  and  death  because  it  was 
metaphysics,  and  denied  personal  sense,  bore  the  cross,  and 
reached  the  right  hand  of  a  perfect  principle.'   .   .   . 

"  Every  text-book  which  we  have  examined  on  the  subject 
brings  this  art  of  healing  into  acknowledged  connection  with 
pantheistic  and  Buddhistic  principles.     The  mind  which  acts 


TRUTH  AND   COUNTERFEIT  137 

on  mind  is  irreverently  confounded  with  the  eternal  Mind. 
For  example,  in  'The  Primitive  Mind  Cure,'  by  W.  F. 
Evans,  the  author,  after  quoting  one  who  declares  that  an 
idea  directed  upon  the  seat  of  a  supposed  ailment  causes  a 
stream  of  nervous  energy  to  flow  toward  the  secreting  organ, 
says :  '  This  nervous  energy  I  prefer  to  call  the  universal, 
divine  life-principle  in  nature,  the  akasa  of  the  Hindu  meta- 
physics, an  all-pervading,  omnipresent,  vivific  principle  of  life 
and  motion,  identical  in  its  higher  aspects  with  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  the  gospels.'  This  we  call  pantheism  of  the  most  revolting 
type,  a  confounding  of  the  third  person  of  the  blessed  Trinity 
with  a  secretion  of  the  nerves.  In  this  book,  too,  is  evolu- 
tionism of  a  very  profane  sort.  'As  the  cabala  expresses  it, 
the  mineral  becomes  a  plant,  the  plant  an  animal,  the  animal 
a  man,  and  man  becomes  divine.  This  is  the  divine  Man, 
the  Christ  of  Paul,  at  the  same  time  a  divine  personage  and  a 
universal,  humanized  principle  of  life  and  light.'  After  tell- 
ing us  that  the  Christ  is  the  '  universal  spirit,'  the  '  all-pervad- 
ing, divine  presence,'  it  is  declared  that,  '  owing  to  the  un- 
exampled spiritual  evolution  of  the  man  Jesus,  his  individual 
life  became  merged  and  blended  into  unity  with  the  Only- 
Begotten  of  the  Father,  the  universal  Christ.'  All  this  and 
much  more  of  the  same  quality  there  is,  which  we  would  not 
quote  except  to  warn  Christians  who  are  swallowing  without 
suspicion  this  book  and  others  of  the  same  family.  It  is  a 
sort  of  witches'  caldron,  in  which  every  conceivable  heathen 
and  Christian  heresy  is  found  seething  and  simmering  to  pro- 
duce the  subtle  essence  called  '  mental  medicine.' 

"  Now,  reading  in  a  work  lies  like  this,  and  seeing  on  almost 
every  page  its  connection  with  theosophy,  esoteric  Buddhism, 
cabalism,  and  pantheism,  the  roots  of  these  doctrines  all  the 
while  being  so  artlessly  entwined  with  apparently  devout  and 
reverent  exposition  of  Scripture  as  to  deceive  the  very  elect ; 
and  then  turning  to  the  metaphysical  healers  who  are  going 


13^  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GOUDON 

to  their  patients,  some  of  them,  at  least,  filled  with  the  evil 
philosophy  of  this  manual,  and  winning  such  reputed  suc- 
cess as  to  have  caused  a  rare  stir  in  our  country,  what  shall 
We  say? 

"We  say  two  things,  viz.,  that  there  may  be  some  psychic 
force  here,  mind-contagion  or  what  not,  which  experts  can 
show  to  account  for  the  whole  matter ;  or  there  may  be  some- 
thing deeper.  For  us,  we  have  the  strongest  conviction  of 
the  existence  of  a  personal  devil,  not  omnipotent,  but  endowed 
with  an  infernal  ingenuity.  It  has  been  his  steady  policy 
either  to  parody  Christianity  by  inventing  spurious  imitations, 
or  to  adulterate  it  with  such  heathen  mixtures  as  to  '  turn  the 
truth  of  God  into  a  lie.'  The  hterature  of  Christian  Science 
presents  clearly  enough  such  a  pagan  adulteration  of  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ ;  and  we  greatly  fear  that  '  the  prince  of  the 
power  of  the  air '  may  be  appropriating  and  reinforcing  what- 
ever occult  principle  of  healing  there  may  be  in  this  system, 
and  using  it  to  accredit  his  own  gospel. 

"  It  will  be  hardly  necessary,  after  what  has  been  said,  to 
distinguish  '  Christian  Science '  from  the  '  prayer  of  faith,' 
which  is  said  in  Scripture  to  'save  the  sick.'  No  one  who 
believes  this  promise  or  makes  use  of  it  has  ever,  so  far  as  we 
know,  considered  that  its  fulfilment  depends  on  the  action 
of  mind  upon  mind.  All  who  credit  'faith-cures,'  as  they 
are  sometimes  called,  hold  that  they  are  the  result  of  God's 
direct  and  supernatural  action  upon  the  body  of  the  sufferer. 
'  Christian  Science  '  pointedly  denies  the  efficacy  of  prayer  for 
the  recovery  of  the  sick.  It  says :  '  Asking  God  to  heal  the 
sick  has  no  effect  to  gain  the  ear  of  love,  beyond  its  ever 
presence.  The  only  beneficial  effect  it  has  is  mind  acting  on 
the  body  through  a  stronger  faith  to  heal  it ;  but  this  is  one 
belief  casting  out  another — a  behef  in  a  personal  God  casting 
out  a  belief  in  sickness,  and  not  giving  the  understanding  of 
the  principle  that  heals.'     ('Science  and  Health,'  ii.,   171.) 


TRUTH  AND    COUNTERFEIT  I39 

Here  the  antagonism  between  two  things  that  differ  is  so 
marked  that  we  only  need  to  call  attention  to  it. 

"  All  this  we  have  written  from  no  love  of  controversy  and 
from  no  personal  ill  will  toward  those  whom  we  criticize,  but 
for  the  warning  of  Christians,  lest  they  be  beguiled  away  from 
the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ.  Let  such  as  would  abide  in 
the  truth  give  heed  to  the  clear  denials  of  Scripture  indicated 
in  the  quotations  above ;  and  then  remember  the  warnings  of 
St.  Paul  to  avoid  the  'oppositions  of  science  falsely  so  called: 
tvhich  some  professing  have  erred  concerning  the  faithJ  And 
when  this  science  talks  about  Jesus  Christ's  '  supposed  life  in 
matter,^  let  them  remember  that  some  in  the  days  of  St.  John 
spoke  precisely  thus — '  Gnostics '  or  '  scientists '  they  were  called 
— and  that  of  them  the  gentle  apostle  is  supposed  to  have  writ- 
ten when  he  said,  '  For  many  deceivers  are  entered  into  the 
world,  ivho  confess  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh. 
This  is  a  deceiver  and  an  antichrist.'  And  finally,  remember- 
ing the  saying  of  Calvin,  which  accords  with  Scripture  and  the 
universal  testimony  of  the  early  church,  that '  Satan  perverts  the 
things  which  otherwise  are  truly  works  of  God,  and  misemploys 
miracles  to  obscure  the  glory  of  God,'  let  us,  with  sober  watch- 
fulness, pray  daily  as  our  Lord  has  taught  us  (R.  V.),  '  Lead 
us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  the  Evil  One.' " 

"  Bar-Jesus  the  sorcerer  forever  dogs  the  steps  of  Christ 
Jesus  the  healer  as  he  walks  through  the  sick-wards  of  the 
world,"  wrote  Gordon  later,  "  and  whoever  encounters  his 
Satanic  miracles  should  infer  that  the  Lord  is  not  far  off  per- 
forming gracious  works  through  the  prayers  and  faith  of  his 
servants."  The  charlatanry  of  spiritualism  and  Christian  Sci- 
ence, as  well  as  Romish  appeals  to  bones  and  vestments  and 
shrines,  was,  he  believed,  the  devil's  travesty  upon  a  vital  truth. 
That  these  wrought  cures  he  did  not  deny,  for  "  all  power  "  *  is 

*  "  Whose  coming  is  .  .  .  with  all  power  and  signs  and  lying  wonders  " 
(2  Thess.  ii.  9). 


140  ADONIRAM  JUDSOX  GORDON 

ascribed  to  the  adversary.  The  impulse,  however,  of  which 
these  cures  were  an  expression  he  beheved  to  be  from  below, 
its  purpose  being  the  exaltation  of  evil  systems  to  the  dis- 
credit of  God's  supernatural  workings.  "  God  never  puts  a 
man  upon  the  stage  that  Satan  does  not  immediately  bring 
forward  an  ape."  *  "  Yet  let  us  not  abandon  our  wheat-field," 
Gordon  would  say,  "  because  the  devil  has  sown  tares.  The 
fact  that  he  sows  tares  is  his  testimony  to  the  genuineness  of 
the  wheat." 

"  The  Ministry  of  Heahng,"  pubhshed  somewhat  before 
this  time,  discusses  the  subject  at  length  from  his  point  of 
view.  Miracles  occurred  in  apostolic  times.  They  occiu-red 
subsequently,  according  to  patristic  testimony.  With  the 
periodical  renaissance  of  vigorous  religious  life  in  such  move- 
ments as  Pietism,  Methodism,  etc.,  have  come  almost  invari- 
ably the  same  manifestations  of  God's  willingness  to  heal. 
The  tree  of  life,  whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations,  bears  its  fruit  every  month.  "  The  test  is,  '  if  thou 
believest,'  not  if  thou  wast  bom  in  Palestine  and  within  the 
limits  of  the  first  Christian  century."  In  the  early  church 
healing  by  faith  as  enjoined  by  James  seems  to  have  been  a 
sacrament  pointing  forward  to  the  restitution  and  renewal  of 
mankind,  as  baptism  symbolized  the  resurrection,  and  as  the 
communion  pointed  to  the  coming  of  Christ.  "  But  while 
the  prayer  of  faith  which  saves  us  is  the  simplest  exercise  of 
the  heart,  the  prayer  of  faith  which  saves  the  sick  is  the  most 
exacting."  This  being  so,  the  practice  fell  largely  into  disuse, 
the  only  suggestion  of  it  which  survives  in  formal  ecclesiasti- 
cal life  being  extreme  unction,  "  wherein  an  ordinance  for  life 
is  perverted  into  an  ordinance  for  death." 

.  He  was  inclined  to  believe  further  that  Jesus  endured 
vicariously  our  sicknesses  t  as  well  as  our  sins,  and  also  that 
"  the  restoration  of  the  sick  in  Christ's  ministry  was  an  enacted 

*  Godet.  t  Matt.  viii.  17. 


TRUTH  AND   COUNTERFEIT  I4I 

prediction  of  the  final  redemption  of  the  body,  a  pulse-beat 
from  the  heart  of  him  who  is  the  resurrection  and  the  hfe,  giving 
a  slight  foretaste  of  our  full  recovery  at  his  appearing  and  king- 
dom." Of  this  he  felt  the  striking  words  in  Hebrews  to  be 
premonitory  where  Christians  are  spoken  of  as  those  who 
have  tasted  the  good  Word  of  God  and  the  powers  of  the  age 
to  come.  "  The  age  to  come,"  said  he,  "  is  the  resurrection 
age,  the  time  of  the  redemption  of  the  body.  We  know  the 
powers  of  that  age  not  simply  by  prediction  and  promise,  but 
by  experience.  Every  miracle  is  a  foretaste  thereof,  a  sign  of 
its  universal  heahng  and  restitution.  The  driftwood  and  float- 
ing vegetation  which  met  the  eye  of  Columbus  as  he  was 
keeping  lookout  upon  his  ship  assured  him  of  his  proximity 
to  the  new  world  which  he  was  seeking.  His  study  of  geog- 
raphy had  convinced  him  of  the  existence  of  that  world. 
But  now  he  tasted  its  powers ;  he  saw  and  handled  its  actual 
first-fruits.  So  it  is  with  us  voyagers  to  the  world  to  come, 
the  millennial  age,  and  time  of  the  restitution  of  all  things. 
As  those  who  have  known  and  credited  our  Lord's  miracles 
while  on  earth,  or  have  experienced  the  wonders  of  recovery 
which  he  has  wrought  as  he  still  stretches  out  his  hand  to  heal, 
we  have  tasted  the  powers  of  the  coming  age." 

"  Miracles  of  healing  "  he  characterized,  therefore,  as  "  mani- 
festations of  nature's  perfect  health,  lucid  intervals  granted 
to  our  deranged  and  suffering  humanity  ;  not  catastrophes,  but 
exhibitions  of  that  divine  order  which  shall  be  brought  in  when 
redemption  is  completed "  in  the  resurrection.  That  those 
who  spiritualize  into  thin  air  the  New  Testament  teaching  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  body  should  deride  the  possibility  of 
bodily  healing  by  faith  in  Christ  was  not  surprising  to  him. 
The  denial  of  the  greater  includes  the  denial  of  the  less.  He 
was  wont  to  remark  on  the  grim  irony  of  the  fact  that  in  the 
history  of  the  church,  when  the  departure  of  the  spirit  at  death 
began  to  be  confused  with  the  return  of  Christ  with  resurrec- 


r42  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON' 

tion  powers,  we  should  then  first  find  miracles  of  heaHng 
alleged  by  contact  with  the  bones  of  dead  saints  and  martyrs 
instead  of  miracles  of  healing  through  the  prayer  of  faith 
offered  to  the  living  Christ.  The  current  sentimental  estimate 
which  makes  of  death  not  "  the  last  enemy,"  but  a  good  angel, 
a  messenger  of  release,  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  opinion 
which  describes  death's  adjutant,  sickness,  as  a  servant  of  the 
Most  High,  To  an  article  which  contended  that  the  miracles 
of  cure  recorded  in  the  New  Testament  were  for  those  on  a 
lower  plane,  and  that  others,  like  Paul,  of  finer  organization 
can  have  a  fuller  spiritual  life  in  bodily  weakness  than  in  good 
health,  he  replied : 

"  We  appeal  to  experience,  and  ask  whether  our  readers 
have  found  it  easier  to  maintain  communion  with  God  when 
they  have  been  prostrated  with  illness  and  racked  with  pain 
than  when  they  have  been  in  buoyant  health.  We  have  found 
just  the  opposite  to  be  true — that  sickness  and  debility  are  a 
great  drawback  to  devotion.  We  appeal  to  Scripture  again, 
and  ask  whether,  because  Paul's  thorn  in  the  flesh  was  over- 
ruled to  his  spiritual  chastening,  he  did  not  nevertheless  speak 
the  truth  when  he  called  it  a  messenger  of  Satan.  An  old 
writer  says,  '  The  Lord  often  sharpens  his  saints  on  the  devil's 
grindstone.'  This  we  admit  most  fully ;  but  we  do  not  there- 
fore advise  that  that  grindstone  be  set  up  as  a  part  of  the 
furniture  of  the  Lord's  house.  We  question  not  that  out- 
breaking sin  is  often  overruled  for  the  final  salvation  of  the 
offender,  as  in  the  case  of  one  who  declared  in  a  public  ad- 
dress that  had  he  never  been  a  drunkard  he  probably  should 
never  have  become  a  Christian.  His  statement  can  be  readily 
credited  ;  yet  we  would  not  recommend  drunkenness  as  a  pre- 
paratory dispensation  to  grace,  for  sin  is  of  the  devil.  In  a 
word,  we  must  distinguish  between  what  our  Lord  overrules 
and  what  he  ordains.  If  in  his  vast  mercy  he  thwarts  the  Evil 
One,  making  sin  and  sickness  work  to  our  good,  we  must  not 


TRUTH  AND    COUNTERFEIT  143 

therefore  sanctify  these  things  into  an  ordinance,  lest  we  make 
Christ  the  minister  of  sin." 

Curiously  enough,  while  prayer  for  the  sick  is  almost  the 
commonest  form  of  petition  among  Christians,  a  belief  in  the 
efficacy  of  such  prayer  and  in  the  direct  answer  to  the  call  for 
healing  is  freely  scouted  as  fanaticism.  "  Therefore  we  need," 
said  Gordon,  "  less  praying  for  the  sick  rather  than  more ; 
only  the  less  should  be  real  and  deep  and  intelligent  and  be- 
lieving." The  divine  help  is  not  to  be  invoked  hghtly  or  as  a 
substitute  for  God's  natural  provision  in  medicine  and  hygiene. 
Nor  is  it  a  grace  for  those  without  depth  of  spiritual  life  or 
for  those  with  whom  exercise  in  prayer  is  not  habitual  and 
prevailing.  Yet  if  the  superior  faith  of  prophets  and  apostles 
is  brought  forward  to  discourage  this  practice  it  should  still  be 
remembered  that  to  the  injunction  in  James  to  "  pray  one  for 
another,  that  ye  may  be  healed,"  is  added  a  significant  note 
on  the  powerfully  effective  prayers  of  Elias,  "  a  man  subject  to 
like  passions  as  we  are." 

To  the  objection  that  prayers  for  the  sick  are  often,  ap- 
parently, unanswered,  he  replied  with  a  disarming  tu  quoque. 
"  Holding  such  views  as  we  Christians  do,"  he  would  say,  "  in 
regard  to  the  efficacy  of  prayer  for  the  conversion  of  souls,  and 
resting  on  the  plain  declaration  of  God  our  Saviour  that  he 
will  have  all  men  saved,  how  can  we  explain  the  fact  that  the 
mass  of  men  go  down  to  death  unreconciled  to  God?  We 
must  remember  both  Melita  and  Miletum.  In  one  place  Paul 
healed  the  father  of  Publius  by  his  prayers ;  in  the  other  he 
left  Trophimus  sick." 

He  realized,  nevertheless,  the  great  perplexities  in  the  whole 
matter.  "  I  have  little  to  say  in  regard  to  the  principles  of 
divine  healing,"  he  says  in  a  letter,  "  but  am  looking  constantly 
for  light.  It  is  a  subject  full  of  difficulties,  and  I  shrink  more 
and  more  from  undertaking  any  philosophy  of  it.  I  do  my 
best  with  every  case  which  comes  before  me." 


144  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

When  the  sick  sought  him  out  he  prayed  with  them  in 
quietness  and  reserve.  Many  remarkable  answers  were 
vouchsafed.  The  statements  of  some  of  the  healed  are  sub- 
joined : 

Rev.  Joseph  C.  Young,  Boston,  Mass. : 

"In  1887  there  appeared  a  growth  on  my  lip.  When  first 
noticed  it  was  very  small,  but  gradually  increased  until  it  seri- 
ously interfered  with  my  preaching.  A  physician  of  good  stand- 
ing, after  two  examinations,  told  me  that  it  was  cancer  and  that 
I  had  better  put  my  house  in  order,  as  he  beheved  I  had  only  a 
short  time  to  live.  Though  believing  in  healing  by  faith,  I  had 
no  appropriating  faith  to  claim  the  promisey^r  myself,  yet  I  con- 
stantly sought  divine  guidance.  For  a  week  I  had  no  light. 
At  the  end  of  this  time  the  promise  in  James  v.  14  came  into 
my  mind  like  a  new  revelation.  I  had  read  and  quoted  it  to 
others  hundreds  of  times,  but  now  it  came  direct  to  me  with 
an  indescribable  force.  I  beheved  it  immediately.  Then 
came  a  perplexity — who  were  the  elders  of  the  church?  Who 
could  offer  the  prayer  of  faith  for  me?  I  knew  many  in 
Brooklyn,  my  home,  and  in  New  York,  who  professed  faith 
in  this  promise,  but  I  had  no  inclination  to  call  them.  I 
made  the  matter  a  subject  of  special  prayer  for  some  days, 
and  the  name  of  Dr.  Gordon,  with  whom  I  was  only  slightly 
acquainted,  was  so  vividly  thrust  into  my  mind  that  I  accepted 
it  as  an  answer  to  my  prayer.  The  appointment  was  made 
to  meet  him  in  Boston  with  Mr.  McElwain  and  Dr.  Peck.  I 
told  them  why  I  had  come,  and  asked  if  they  could  take  the 
promise  in  James  and  pray  in  faith  for  my  healing.  They  re- 
plied that  they  could,  and  Dr.  Gordon  prayed,  anointing  me 
according  to  the  instructions.  I  was  in  the  study  only  a  short 
time,  and  went  away  almost  immediately  after  the  prayer.  I 
had  no  more  pain  or  trouble  from  the  cancer,  and  within  a 
few  weeks  all  signs  of  it  had  disappeared.  It  has  never  re- 
turned.    The  promise  was  believed,  the  prayer  was  offered,  I 


TRUTH  AND    COUNTERFEIT  145 

was  healed.  ...  I  give  this  testimony  with  some  reluctance. 
It  is  not  a  subject  to  be  too  much  advertised.  The  Spirit 
heals  according  to  the  will  of  God,  not  according  to  our  will. 
There  has  been  too  much  fleshly  formulating  of  theories  on 
this  as  on  all  other  teachings  of  the  Bible,  and  for  that  reason 
less  of  the  power  of  God  manifested." 

Mr.  Mial  Davis,  a  lumber-merchant  of  Fitchburg,  Mass., 
writes : 

"  Next  to  my  conversion,  the  divine  healing  in  the  study  of 
dear  Dr.  Gordon  was  the  most  remarkable  experience  of  my 
life.  In  1889  I  was  prostrated.  The  right  thigh  seemed  to 
lose  its  vitality  to  such  a  degree  that  it  seemed  for  a  time  im- 
possible to  bring  hfe  back  to  it.  Some  of  my  friends  wished 
to  remove  me  to  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  to  see  if 
amputation  could  not  save  me.  I  said  no ;  I  was  ready  to 
die.  Years  of  prostration  followed.  At  intervals  I  could  go 
about  with  crutch  or  cane ;  at  other  times  I  was  confined  to 
my  bed.  I  could  do  little  or  nothing  at  my  business.  My 
mind  finally  turned  to  the  study  of  heahng  by  faith.  After 
correspondence  I  forced  myself,  in  great  weakness,  on 
crutches  to  Dr.  Gordon's  study.  He  laid  his  hand  upon  my 
heart  and,  oh,  what  a  prayer  for  my  recovery,  what  pleading 
with  God!  Brother  McElwain's  prayer  followed,  then  my 
own  poor  prayer.  Oh,  what  a  miniature  transfiguration  of 
Jesus  was  there!  The  very  place  was  holy  ground.  That 
was  the  day  of  days  to  me.  You  probably  know  how  I  went 
'  walking  and  leaping,  praising  God.'  I  rose  from  my  knees 
after  all  of  us  had  prayed,  went  out  on  the  sidewalk  to  go  to 
the  depot.  I  felt  that  new  life  had  come  to  my  knee  and 
limb  from  thigh  to  foot.  I  walked  up  and  down  the  cars 
while  on  my  way  home,  praising  God  and  giving  him  the 
glory.  I  had  worn  rubber  bands  round  my  knee,  leg,  and 
ankle,  but  the  next  morning  I  did  not  put  them  on  and  never 
have  worn  them  since.     My  crutches  and  cane  were  laid  aside. 


146  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

I  have  been  able  to  do  far  more  church  work  and  business 
than  ever  I  expected  to  do.   .  .  ." 

Miss  Emma  Davis,  Southboro,  Mass.,  writes : 
"  I  suffered  for  years  from  seasons  of  utter  prostration  and 
acute  suffering,  with  insomnia  frequent  and  prolonged.  My 
left  side  was  a  little,  weak,  shrunken  thing,  and  my  spine  was 
badly  curved,  the  right  side  being  much  too  large  and  bowed. 
A  few  years  since,  when  my  attention  was  called  to  the  Lord's 
healing,  I  was  about  as  full  of  unbelief  and  prejudice  as  one 
could  be.  But  prejudice  began  to  melt  away  under  the  light 
of  the  Word,  and  I  began  to  beheve  that  possibly  I  might  be 
helped.  I  consecrated  myself  to  God  as  never  before,  dear 
friends  prayed  earnestly  in  my  behalf,  and,  as  fully  as  I  knew 
how,  I  placed  my  case  in  the  hands  of  the  great  Physician. 
For  a  while  I  was  better.  Then  new  ills  came  upon  me  until 
it  seemed  at  times  as  though  my  very  reason  would  leave  me. 
.  .  .  About  this  time  I  was  most  definitely  led  to  write  to 
Dr.  Gordon.  An  interview  followed.  He  seemed  fearful  lest 
I  should  fix  my  faith  on  the  human  agency  instead  of  on  the 
divine.  He  said  most  emphatically,  '  I  have  no  power.' 
'But,'  repl'ed  I,  'you  have  faith  in  the  One  who  has.'  He 
smiled,  and  asked  some  very  searching  questions  as  to  my 
faith  to  receive,  as  to  consecration,  and  the  use  of  God-given 
health. 

"  He  appointed  a  day  when  he  would  with  others  pray  with 
me  for  my  healing.  When  I  came  to  his  study  I  was  suffer- 
ing intensely.  With  others  he  prayed  for  me,  placing  his 
hands  on  my  head.  I  felt  no  change.  Reaching  home,  I 
was  soon  prostrated  with  the  old  misery,  suffering  terribly 
night  and  day  for  nearly  two  weeks,  but  over  and  over  again 
came  to  me  the  words,  '  Fear  not,  only  believe ; '  and  there 
was  a  deep  stillness  and  peace  in  my  soul,  beyond  anything  I 
had  ever  experienced.  The  trial  of  faith  was  fiery,  but  I 
knew  deliverance  was  near.     One  morning  about  the  middle 


TRUTH  AND    COUNTERFEIT  147 

of  April  I  woke  without  a  pain  in  my  body,  and,  as  I  then 
expressed  it,  '  they  are  all  carried  away  into  the  wilderness.' 
With  a  new  song  in  my  heart,  even  praises  to  God,  and  with 
faithful  promises,  I  rose  up  to  serve  anywhere  the  Lord  might 
indicate.  It  is  now  almost  four  years,  and  I  have  had  no 
return  of  my  old  pains  or  sickness.  The  change  in  my  de- 
formity is  most  marked.  All  the  pads  and  artificial  means  of 
relief  are  dispensed  with.  .  .  .  Until  my  healing  I  was  always 
over-tired,  and  the  more  tired  the  more  pain  and  insomnia. 
Now  no  matter  how  much  I  exert  myself  I  wake  fresh  and 
rested  in  the  mornings.  .  .  .  Can  any  one  explain  away  this 
sudden  lifting  of  nearly  thirty  years'  misery?  " 

Mrs.  Gertrude  Floyd  Cole  (deceased),— statement  of  hus- 
band : 

"She  was  a  fragile  girl  from  her  youth  up,  a  few  days  at 
school  being  sufficient  to  exhaust  her  for  weeks.  Yet  she  was 
ever  a  person  of  great  piety  and  of  a  pronounced  spiritual 
life.  Coming  to  Boston,  she  found  work  as  a  sewing- woman. 
The  confinement  brought  on  consumption  of  the  most  malig- 
nant type,  accompanied  by  severe  hemorrhages.  The  physi- 
cian pronounced  her  case  hopeless.  Dr.  Gordon,  on  one  of 
his  visits,  the  last  preceding  his  departure  to  the  country,  con- 
versed with  the  dying  girl.  He  asked  her  if  she  could  rely 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  raise  her  up,  human  aid  having 
done  all  in  its  power.  She  said  that  she  could,  and  that 
henceforth  she  surrendered  herself  to  Christ.  He  prayed  the 
prayer  of  faith  as  recorded  in  James,  and  left  her  in  God's 
hands.  She  abandoned  medicine,  but  sank  beyond  all  indi- 
cations of  hfe,  and  was  pronounced  to  have  passed  away.  She 
did  indeed  pass  into  the  world  of  eternal  life,  and  heard  that 
which  cannot  be  recorded  other  than  that  she  was  told  that 
her  life-work  was  not  yet  complete.  Whi'.e  the  attendants 
were  making  ready  for  her  burial,  she  showed  signs  of  return- 
ing life.     From  that  hour  her  hemorrhages  ceased  and  a  warm 


148  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

and  grateful  healing  sensation  permeated  her  lungs,  and  she 
was  raised  to  health.  Dr.  Gordon,  on  returning  from  the 
country  in  the  fall,  met  her  on  the  street  and  did  not  know 
her,  so  perfectly  had  she  recovered.  This  was  his  first  inti- 
mation of  her  healing.  She  lived  many  years,  married,  en- 
gaged in  Christian  work,  and  died  finally,  though  not  of  con- 
sumption." 


CHAPTER  XII 

AMONG    STUDENTS 

The  Princeton  College  meetings — Difficulties  met  and  overcome — Contact 
with  President  McCosh— Work  at  other  colleges 

IN  the  opening  weeks  of  1884  a  door  to  new  opportunities 
and  new  activities  was  opened.  Dr.  James  McCosh,  the 
venerable  president  of  Princeton  College,  had  heard  of  Dr. 
Gordon  through  his  Northfield  labors  and  wrote  urging  him 
to  come  to  Princeton,  there  to  undertake  special  religious 
work  among  the  students.  The  field  was  new  and  untried, 
and  of  especial  difficulty  and  delicacy  withal.  Few  will 
question  the  natural  tendency  to  levity  which  prevails  in  a 
student  community.  Youth,  freedom  from  home  restraints, 
the  contagion  of  diverse  acquaintance,  and  the  ignorance  of 
those  severe  and  disillusioning  experiences  of  maturer  years 
combine  to  make  a  product  almost  inaccessible  to  sober  and 
religious  influences.  There  were,  furthermore,  exceptional 
circumstances  which,  all  unknown  to  the  visitor,  worked 
greatly  to  his  prejudice  and  disadvantage.  Take  the  train  to 
Manhattan  Field,  New  York,  any  day  when  the  bill-boards 
announce  some  special  intercollegiate  fete.  Listen  to  the 
hoarse  cheering,  rising  like  the  surf  of  the  Atlantic.  Watch 
the  waving  colors,  the  excited  thousands,  the  gladiatorial 
struggle  over  a  pigskin  foot-ball.  It  is  on  such  occasions,  if 
ever,  that  college  students  occupy  a  large  place  in  the  public 
eye.     How  irritated  they  would  be  if  kept  home  and  packed 

149 


15°  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

off  en  masse  to  college  chapel!  Yet  this  was  very  much  the 
case  with  the  discontented,  angry  youths  who,  by  some  recent 
and  perverse  enactment,  found  themselves  gathered  to  hear 
an  unknown  preacher  from  Boston  at  the  very  hour  upon 
which  they  had  pitched  for  some  gala  festival  of  athleticism. 
That  the  preacher  enjoyed  the  service  quite  as  little  as  the 
boys  themselves  is  seen  from  the  following  letter : 

"  Princeton,  N.  J.,  February  4,  1884. 
"  My  dear  Wife  :  I  will  give  you  a  little  account  of  the 
work,  thanking  God  for  what  he  has  graciously  given.  The 
first  day  was  the  toughest  experience  I  have  ever  had.  The 
students  have  been  free,  hitherto,  to  come  to  the  prayer-day 
services  or  not— they  have  largely  chosen  not  to  come— till 
this  year  their  attendance  was  made  compulsory.  My  first 
address  was  to  this  compelled  crowd,  many  of  them  disgusted 
that  their  holiday  had  been  turned  into  a  holy  day.  They  sat 
before  me  facing  at  all  angles,  oghng  and  squirming  and 
showing  pla'nly  enough  that  they  did  not  propose  to  be 
solemnized.  I  was  never  so  taken  off  my  pins  in  my  life.  I 
sweat  and  floundered  about  and  made  an  utter  fizzle.  All 
the  grave  and  dignified  faculty  sat  ranged  on  either  side.  I 
came  home  and  dried  my  clothes  and  went  back  to  the  even- 
ing service  with  fear  and  trembling.  That  was  not  compul- 
sory, and  I  got  on  much  better.  Still,  I  was  so  discouraged 
that  I  determined  to  start  for  home  on  Friday  morning.  But 
I  feel  that  the  Lord  overruled  my  rash  purpose.  A  large 
delegation  of  students,  who  appreciated  exactly  the  trial 
under  which  I  had  labored,  came  to  see  me,  and  insisted  that 
I  should  stay.  I  consented,  and  began  to  visit  the  young 
men  at  their  rooms.  Sunday  morning  I  preached  again  be- 
fore students  and  faculty.  There  was  a  great  change ;  no 
compulsion,  but  all  were  out  and  very  attentive.  In  the 
afternoon  again  deeply  solemn  meeting.     The  good  old  pres- 


AMONG   STUDENTS  151 

ident  arose  and  made  a  most  solemn  appeal,  saying,  '  Young 
men,  you  have  heard  the  gospel  to-day  so  plainly  declared 
that  you  are  without  excuse  if  you  do  not  accept  Christ.' 

"  In  the  evening  the  students  who  were  Christians  planned 
for  meetings  in  their  rooms,  inviting  those  in  their  respective 
halls  to  come  in.  I  started  at  seven  o'clock  to  visit  these 
meetings.  I  found  them  all  crowded.  In  the  first  one  I 
struck,  ten  rose  at  my  invitation  to  indicate  their  purpose  to 
follow  Christ.  I  went  from  building  to  building  among  the 
meetings,  finding  in  almost  every  one  those  who  were  ready 
to  stand  up.  I  visited  six  of  these,  and  I  judge  there  must 
have  been  twenty  who  confessed  Christ  in  different  rooms. 
My  reception  among  the  students  was  most  cordial  and  affec- 
tionate. I  think  the  Lord  has  given  me  their  hearts,  and  my 
first  discouragement  has  been  turned  into  great  joy.  I  have 
addressed  the  theological  students  and  have  met  many  of 
them  in  private  for  prayer  and  conference.  A  good  work 
has  certainly  begun.  I  shall  stay  to-day  at  least  to  see  it 
furthered.     It  has  been  a  peculiar  and  valuable  experience. 

"Much  love  to  you  and  to  all.  The  Lord  bless  you. 
Pray,  all  of  you,  that  I  may  not  labor  in  vain  or  run  in  vain. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"  Gordon." 

The  effect  which  his  personality  and  his  earnest  words  had 
upon  the  students  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  admi- 
rable notes  written  by  one  who  was  at  the  time  in  the  senior 
class  at  Princeton  and  who  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  whole 
movement : 

"In  November,  1883,  the  Interseminary  Missionary 
Alliance  met  at  Hartford.  It  was  composed  of  delegates 
from  theological  institutions,  but  a  large  contingent  from 
Princeton  College  went  up  and  were  permitted  to  enjoy  the 
feast  of  good  things,  without  participating  in  the  discussions. 


152  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Dr.  Gordon  was  one  of  the  chief  speakers,  and  gave  at  an 
evening  session  a  powerful  address  on  the  enduement  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  for  service.  He  held  a  consecration  meeting 
at  the  close  of  the  session  at  which  nearly  all  the  young 
men  remained,  even  till  nearly  the  midnight  hour.  It  was  a 
remarkably  tender  and  spiritual  service.  He  spoke  very 
modestly  and  reverently  of  his  own  experience  in  receiving 
this  enduement  of  the  Spirit  some  years  before.  The  Prince- 
ton students,  like  all  the  rest,  were  greatly  drawn  to  Dr.  Gor- 
don. When  the  '  Day  of  Prayer  for  Colleges '  drew  near,  the 
latter  part  of  January,  those  of  us  who  had  heard  him  at 
Hartford  were  a  unit  in  desiring  him  to  preach  on  that  day, 
and  through  our  efforts  he  was  invited  and  came.  Recita- 
tions were  suspended  for  the  day,  and  the  students  were  re- 
quired to  attend  service  at  eleven  o'clock.  The  beautiful 
Marquand  Chapel  was  filled  with  students,  professors,  people 
from  the  town,  and  students  from  the  theological  seminary. 
The  sermon  was  excellent  and  made  a  fine  impression,  but  the 
preacher  was  far  from  being  himself. 

"  I  remember  very  distinctly,  in  talking  with  him  several 
years  later  regarding  that  service,  he  said  it  was  one  of  the 
most  trying  experiences  of  his  life.  Everything  around  him 
was  new,  and  everybody  was  strange ;  he  was  right  in  the 
heart  of  the  conservatism  of  the  great  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  all  about  him  were  seated  its  ablest  representatives.  He 
was  requested  to  remain  over  Sunday,  which  he  did,  and  in 
the  meantime  conducted  services  as  he  had  opportunity.  But 
before  he  had  concluded  the  meetings  of  Sunday  he  had  re- 
covered himself  and  had  won  all  hearts.  In  spite  of  the 
earnest  request  that  he  stay  and  continue  the  good  work 
which  had  sprung  up  among  the  students  during  his  brief 
visit,  he  felt  obliged  to  return  to  his  own  charge.  For  the 
next  week  or  two  we  carried  on  special  religious  services  with 
some  degree  of  success ;  but  finally  it  was  decided  that  we 


AMONG  STUDENTS  153 

must  have  Dr.  Gordon  return.  At  our  earnest  solicitation, 
indorsed  by  Dr.  McCosh,  he  came  back  and  was  with  us  for 
perhaps  ten  days.  He  preached  each  evening  in  Murray 
Hall,  and  from  nine  till  eleven  o'clock  went  from  dormitory 
to  dormitory  to  conduct  prayer  and  inquiry  meetings.  All 
the  students  that  could  be  induced  to  attend  were  summoned 
from  the  section  of  the  hall  in  which  the  meeting  was  held— 
a  dozen,  twenty,  or  more.  A  great  many  in  those  meetings 
made  a  profession  of  faith  in  Christ.  They  were  gatherings 
never  to  be  forgotten.  One  memorable  feature  was  his  teach- 
ing inquirers  to  pray.  All  bowed  the  head,  and  then  Dr. 
Gordon  would  oflFer  up  a  simple,  earnest  prayer  of  self-sur- 
render and  consecration  to  God,  followed,  sentence  by  sen- 
tence, by  a  chorus  of  half  a  dozen  voices.  Many  of  the 
rougher  fellows  of  the  college  were  deeply  moved  in  these 
meetings,  to  which  they  came  when  they  would  not  attend  a 
public  meeting. 

"  The  students  throughout  the  college  were  delighted  with 
Dr.  Gordon.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  such  matters  know 
how  hard  it  is  to  suit  an  audience  of  undergraduates.  I  am 
sure  there  was  less  of  criticism  passed  upon  him  than  upon 
any  other  man  who  came  before  the  students  while  I  was  in 
the  institution.  The  professors  as  well  as  the  students  were 
pleased.  Professor  Raymond,  of  the  chair  of  oratory,  said 
the  quality  of  Dr.  Gordon's  voice  was  unsurpassed ;  indeed, 
he  had  heard  but  one  speaker  who  equaled  him  in  this  re- 
spect. He  thought  if  his  natural  gift  were  cultivated,  he 
would  have  marvelous  power  as  a  speaker. 

"  Dr.  McCosh  was  in  most  hearty  sympathy  with  the  work. 
He  was  present  at  very  many  of  the  public  meetings,  and  always 
urged  their  importance  upon  the  students.  Those  who  ever  met 
Dr.  McCosh  will  readily  understand  that  he  had  absolutely  no 
gift  as  an  evangelist.  He  was  wholly  lacking  in  that  tact, 
grace,  and  delicacy  which  one  must  possess  who  would  con- 


154  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

duct  a  successful  inquiry  meeting,  among  students  especially. 
Frequently  at  the  close  of  the  meeting,  as  a  matter  of  cour- 
tesy, the  preacher  would  ask  if  the  president  had  anything  to 
say.  He  always  had  something  to  say  by  way  of  commenda- 
tion of  the  work  and  of  him  who  conducted  it.  Indeed,  he 
seemed  unable  to  find  words  to  express  his  appreciation  of 
the  preacher.  With  his  broad  Scotch  accent,  which  was 
well-nigh  unintelligible  to  those  not  familiar  with  his  speech, 
he  would  invariably  inform  us  that '  Dr.  Gourdon  is  the  loove- 
liest  mon  I  iver  had  in  me  house.  And  if  I  iver  h'ard  the 
gospel  preached  in  me  life,  it  has  been  from  the  lips  of  Dr. 
Gourdon.'  This  sentiment  was  expressed  with  much  feeling, 
evidently  to  the  embarrassment  of  the  preacher,  and  a  good 
deal  to  the  amusement  of  the  students. 

"  It  is  doubtful  if  Dr.  Gordon  ever  had  a  greater  triumph, 
so  to  speak,  than  he  had  at  Princeton.  He  showed  himself 
to  be  by  nature  a  prince  among  men,  and  by  grace  a  man  of 
God  indeed.  During  that  religious  awakening,  which  con- 
tinued a  number  of  weeks,  we  had  the  assistance  of  some  of 
the  most  noted  preachers  we  could  command,  such  as  Drs. 
John  Hall  and  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall,  of  New  York,  Drs. 
Pierson  and  Mutchmore,  of  Philadelphia,  besides  Professors 
Hodge,  Patton,  and  Paxton,  of  the  seminary.  But  none  of 
these,  and  not  even  Mr.  Moody,  who  had  been  at  the  college 
some  years  before,  was  received  as  was  our  own  great  leader. 
It  was  remarked  by  those  who  had  been  connected  with  the 
college  a  long  time  that  not  within  their  recollection  had  any 
one  met  with  Dr.  Gordon's  reception.  This  chapter  in  his 
life  will  always  stand  as  a  significant  indication  of  his  influence 
among  men,  and  especially  among  young  men  in  college,  than 
whom  a  more  critical  class  cannot  be  found.  Most  truthfully 
may  it  be  said  of  Dr.  Gordon,  'As  a  prince  he  had  power 
with  God  and  with  men,  and  prevailed.'  " 

During  the  daytime — which,  as  he  said,  "  passes  not  a  Httle 


AMONG   STUDENTS  I  55 

slowly,  as  I  can  do  nothing  among  the  students  until  the 
evening,  my  work  beginning  at  7  p.m.,  and  continuing  until 
eleven"— he  stayed  at  the  Nassau  House,  "in  order  to  give 
the  students  a  better  opportunity  to  come  and  see  me,  though 
I  have  two  or  three  cordial  invitations  to  professors'  homes." 
After  the  evening  services  were  over  he  went  usually  to  Dr. 
McCosh's  house  and  there  spent  the  night.  We  get  a  glimpse 
of  the  delightful  intercourse  which  he  had  in  these  late  hours 
with  the  veteran  president  in  certain  charming  reminiscences 
which  he  wrote  out  just  after  Dr.  McCosh's  death  and  within 
three  months  of  his  own  departure.     He  says : 

"  Some  ten  years  ago,  when  invited  by  the  students  of 
Princeton  to  address  them  on  the  '  Day  of  Prayer  for  Col- 
leges,' the  president  wrote  confirming  the  invitation,  and  add- 
ing, '  Of  course  you  will  live  with  me  while  in  Princeton.'  I 
cannot  say  that  I  was  entirely  at  ease  in  his  dignified  presence 
the  first  hour  after  entering  his  house,  or  that  he  was  entirely 
free  in  his  confidence  toward  a  stranger  till  he  should  know 
who  and  what  manner  of  man  he  might  be.  But,  being  in- 
vited to  remain  over  Sunday,  and  the  ice  having  been  broken 
in  the  evening  of  that  day,  so  that  more  than  a  score  of  young 
men  came  forward  as  inquirers,  the  good  man  at  once  laid 
aside  all  reserve,  and  from  that  hour  put  his  whole  heart  into 
the  work,  attending  every  public  meeting,  and  urging  on  the 
students  at  every  session  of  college  prayers  the  importance  of 
giving  attention  to  their  spiritual  welfare.  The  services  con- 
tinued for  two  weeks,  very  soon  taking  this  turn  in  order  to 
reach  the  students :  preaching  in  the  chapel  at  five  daily,  and 
then  night  meetings  in  the  various  halls,  beginning  at  9  p.m. 
and  continuing  till  12  p.m.  It  was  in  these  gatherings  that 
the  personal  work  was  done. 

"  When  I  returned  to  the  president's  house  at  the  close  of 
these  midnight  meetings  Dr.  McCosh  would  invariably  be 
found  waiting,  with  a  warm  fire  on  the  hearthstone  and  a 


156  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

table  spread  with  refreshments,  always  eager  to  hear  what  new 
names  had  been  added  to  the  Hst  of  inquirers.  There  could 
hardly  have  been  greater  joy  in  heaven  over  repenting  sinners 
than  there  was  in  his  heart  as  the  names  were  read  to  him 
from  my  note-book  night  after  night ;  and  then  he  would  talk 
them  over  and  hft  them  up  before  the  Lord,  that  he  would  by 
his  Spirit  make  thorough  work  in  their  hearts  and  keep  them 
from  falling  back. 

"And  now,  the  day's  work  being  over  for  president  and 
preacher,  the  former  was  ready  to  talk,  to  tell  you  about  the 
men  and  the  experiences  associated  with  his  early  life,  to  be 
drawn  out  on  points  of  doctrine  and  controversy,  to  answer 
all  the  questions  you  might  propound,  no  matter  if  you  should 
continue  till  two  or  three  in  the  morning.  He  would  never 
give  the  shghtest  intimation  that  he  desired  to  retire." 

The  talk  ran  largely  on  rehgious  movements  in  Scotland. 
Many  and  interesting  were  the  stories  which  were  told  of  the 
heroic  days  of  the  Disruption.  Irving,  McCheyne,  Chalmers, 
Duflf,  were  all  there  in  the  dim  twilight  of  the  blazing  fire's 
penumbra.  They  laughed  heartily,  too,  over  the  mishaps 
which  had  befallen  Matthew  Arnold  in  his  then  recent  visit  to 
the  college.  For  he  had  mailed  his  acceptance  of  an  invita- 
tion to  lecture  there  to  Dr.  Churchill,  of  Andover,  sending  in- 
stead a  hearty  expression  of  thanks  for  Dr.  Churchill's  hospi- 
tahty  to  Dr.  McCosh.  And  then,  to  cap  all,  he  had  missed 
the  Princeton  station  and  was  obliged  to  walk  eleven  miles, 
coming  finally  into  the  httle  college  town,  spattered  with 
mud,  sitting  on  the  high  seat  of  a  butcher-cart. 

At  last,  when  the  fire  had  burned  to  the  last  ash,  the  long 
night  sessions  would  break  up. 

"Thank  God,"  says  Gordon  in  closing  his  reminiscences, 
"  for  a  great  scholar  who  was  able  to  yoke  up  the  deepest 
philosophy  with  the  simplest  faith ;  who,  with  all  his  learning, 
kept  the  heart  of  a  child  toward  the  Saviour.     How  much  he 


AMONG   STUDENTS  I57 

owed  for  the  purity  of  his  faith  and  the  simpHcity  of  his  piety 
and  the  stahvartness  of  his  convictions  to  these  friends  of  his 
early  days  whom  he  so  loved  and  revered — Chalmers  and 
McCheyne  and  the  Bonars!.  Almost  as  remarkably  as  Dr. 
Wayland,  in  Brown,  did  President  McCosh  combine  the  in- 
tellectual and  the  evangelistic  spirit.  Pointing  to  a  chair 
standing  before  the  open  fire  in  one  of  those  midnight  talks, 
he  said,  '  He  came  back  some  years  after  his  graduation  and 
knelt  with  me  by  that  chair  and  confessed  Christ.  I  believed 
he  would  do  so,  for  I  never  forgot  him  nor  ceased  to  pray  for 
him  after  he  left  college.'  He  had  been  speaking  of  a  very 
able  but  skeptical  man  with  whom  he  had  '  dealt  much,'  to  use 
his  own  phrase,  during  his  student  days.  Such  college  presi- 
dents are  to  be  sought  for  and  prayed  for  in  these  days.  May 
God  multiply  their  number." 

Gordon's  work  among  college  students  did  not  end  here. 
At  the  Northfield  college  conferences  his  influence  upon 
young  men  was  always  marked.  To  mention  one  case  only, 
Mr.  Robert  P.  Wilder,  the  original  and  most  prominent  leader 
in  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  since  grown  to  such 
proportions,  has  declared  in  a  recent  letter  that  to  A.  J.  Gor- 
don and  to  J.  Hudson  Taylor  he  owes  more  for  the  develop- 
ment of  his  spiritual  life  than  to  any  others,  living  or  dead. 
Others  have  made  hke  statements.  In  later  years,  in  addition 
to  the  addresses  given  at  these  college  conferences,  he  spoke 
at  various  times  at  Yale,  Amherst,  Rutgers,  Mount  Holyoke, 
Williams,  at  Princeton  again,  and  at  Brown,  always  with 
great  acceptance,  and  in  several  of  the  colleges  named  con- 
ducted series  of  religious  meetings  with  the  attendant  personal 
work  described  above. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

MISSIONS    OR   MAMMON? 

The  Congo  Mission  bequeathed  to  the  A.  B.  M.  U.— Dr.  Gordon's  fight 
against  its  abandonment — "  The  cooking-stove  apostasy" — Address 
at  Evangelical  Alliance,  "  The  Responsibility  Growing  out  of  our 
Perils  and  Opportunities  " 

IN  the  fall  of  '84  the  Livingstone  Inland  Mission,  founded 
by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grattan  Guinness  of  London,  was 
handed  over  to  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union. 
This  mission  was  organized  immediately  after  Stanley  emerged 
from  the  gloom  of  interior  Africa  in  '77,  By  this  time  its 
stations  were  planted  all  up  and  down  the  Lower  Congo. 
Twenty-five  men  and  women  were  in  the  field,  acclimatized 
and  instructed  in  the  vernacular.  Translations  of  a  large  part 
of  the  Scriptures  had  been  made  into  many  Congoese  dialects. 
Schools  were  in  running  operation.  A  steamer  for  itinerating 
purposes  plied  from  station  to  station.  All  the  preliminary 
expenses,  all  the  discouragements  of  frequent  sicknesses  and 
early  deaths,  which  accompany  missionary  pioneering,  had 
been  borne  by  the  founders.  The  mission  with  all  its  equip- 
ment was  bequeathed  without  conditions  to  the  American 
Baptists,  who  had  been  contemplating  opening  work  in  Africa, 
as  to  "those  who  believe  in  maintaining  every  word  and 
ordinance  of  God." 

The  gift  was  accepted  at  the  Detroit  meeting  of  the  de- 
nomination in  '84.  A  reaction  of  timid  conservatism,  how- 
ever, followed  soon  after.     The  value  of  the  gift  did  not  seem 

158 


MISSIONS   OR   MAMMON?  159 

to  be  fully  appreciated.  The  difficulties  ahead  loomed  large 
against  the  black  sky  of  boundless  African  heathenism.  A 
cry  for  "  concentration  of  interests  "  went  abroad,  and  pres- 
sure was  brought  to  bear  from  many  quarters  looking  to  the 
return  of  the  missionaries  and  the  abandonment  of  the  field. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Dr.  Gordon  set  himself  to  stem 
the  tide.  Earnestly  did  he  appeal  to  his  own  church  and  to 
local  conferences  to  resist  the  retrenchment.  With  his  pen 
he  addressed  the  denomination  at  large.  A  pointed  tract, 
"  The  Ship  Jesus,"  emphasizing  the  American  debt  to  Africa, 
was  written,  and  became  widely  influential.  Finally  he  took 
the  field  with  Dr.  Sims,  who  had  worked  many  years  in  this 
mission,  and  went  from  city  to  city  over  all  the  country  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  pleading  for  the  evangelization  of  the  Congo 
Valley.  With  statesman-like  prevision  he  showed  the  stra- 
tegic opportunities  of  the  mission.  With  burning  words  he  de- 
nounced the  proposed  desertion  of  those  who  were  holding 
the  outposts.  He  aptly  recalled  the  history  of  the  great  and 
flourishing  Telugu  Mission  and  the  demands  for  its  abandon- 
ment which  had  been  made  in  its  days  of  weakness.  He 
denied  the  "  lack  of  interest "  which  many  were  urging  as  a 
reason  for  withdrawal.  "  When  the  doctor  would  feel  the 
pulse  of  a  patient,"  said  he,  "he  lays  his  finger  on  the  wrist, 
where  the  walls  of  flesh  are  the  thinnest.  Who  will  say  that 
we  may  not  detect  the  missionary  pulse  and  learn  something 
of  the  moving  of  the  Spirit  by  noting  the  expressions  of 
Christ's  poor  saints  who  have  sent  up  their  little  gifts— in 
some  instances  the  widow's  all — because  the  burden  for  Africa 
is  on  their  hearts?  I  have  rarely  read  anything  more  touch- 
ing than  some  letters  of  this  sort  which  have  been  received ; 
and  there  have  been  hundreds  of  these  small  donations. 
How  can  the  Union,  having  opened  its  treasury  and  invited 
contributions  to  the  Congo  Mission,  and  in  response  having 
received  gifts  from  hundreds  of  donors,  many  of  them,  as  I 


i6o  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

know,  the  fruit  of  the  most  conscientious  self-sacrifice,  fail 
now  to  fulfil  the  trust  which  the  acceptance  of  such  gifts  in- 
volves? 

"  No!  let  us,  pastors  and  editors,  laymen  and  workmen  for 
Christ,  shut  our  ears  to  this  talk  about  '  giving  up,'  and  raise 
the  cry,  '  Give.'  Let  us  emphasize  the  cry  by  entering  upon 
a  course  of  self-denial  which  we  have  not  known  before,  in 
economizing  in  our  living  and  cutting  off  our  luxuries,  that 
we  may  have  more  to  give.  The  American  Baptists  need 
the  Congo  almost  as  much  as  the  Congo  needs  them.  They 
need  the  tremendous  appeal  of  its  misery,  its  darkness,  and  its 
ruin  to  rouse  them  to  their  old-time  heroism  and  self-denial. 
Ethiopia  is  at  last  stretching  out  her  hands  to  God ;  she  is 
also  stretching  out  her  hands  to  us.  How  can  we  answer  at 
the  bar  of  God  if,  with  all  our  yet  unused  resources,  we  turn 
away  from  the  call,  and  withdraw  our  hands  from  Ethiopia?  " 

The  response  to  these  appeals  was  such  as  to  place  the 
Congo  Mission  beyond  even  the  suggestion  of  abandonment. 
Gordon  was  able  to  write  from  Asbury  Park,  where  the  ques- 
tion came  up  for  final  settlement  at  the  annual  meetings  of 
the  denomination,  the  following  triumphant  words : 

"  Praise  the  Lord !  The  Congo  Mission  has  gone  up  with 
a  shout — gone  up,  that  is  to  say,  with  the  strong  and  unani- 
mous voice  of  all  the  people  to  possess  the  land.  I  wish  you 
could  have  seen  and  heard  the  enthusiasm  of  the  meeting 
yesterday.  The  Lord  hath  done  great  things  for  us,  whereof 
we  are  glad." 

"  Dr.  Gordon's  best  monument,"  wrote  after  his  death  one 
who  knows  more  of  this  crisis  than  any  other,  "  is  the  Congo 
Mission.     He  saved  it!" 

The  increasing  tendency  in  Protestant  churches  to  adopt 
unworthy  methods  for  raising  money,  and  the  growth  of 
church  amusements  and  "  vestry  junketings  "  to  the  detriment 
of  the  spiritual  life,  was  severely  rebuked  in  an  address  which 


MISSIOXS   OK  MAMMON?  l6i 

Dr.  Gordon  delivered  about  this  time.  "  Machinery,"  he  said, 
"is  taking  the  place  of  life  in  our  churches.  If  money  is 
needed  for  carrying  on  the  Lord's  work,  the  first  resort  is  not 
to  fasting  and  prayer,  but  to  festivals  and  fairs.  Now  eating 
strawberries  and  cream  in  the  interest  of  foreign  missions 
stands  in  immeasurable  contrast  with  foregoing  butter  and 
sugar,  as  the  poor  Salvationist  does,  in  order  to  save  thereby 
to  help  the  gospel."  He  aptly  characterized  the  series  of 
noisome  enterprises  for  filching  dollars  from  unwilling  pockets 
—the  rainbow  teas,  the  chocolate  drills,  the  operettas,  the 
bazaars,  the  clam-bakes,  the  minstrel  shows,  the  broom  drills, 
the  kermesses,  the  oyster  suppers,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the 
whole  wretched  category — as  a  new  heresy,  a  heresy  of  con- 
duct, "the  cooking-stove  apostasy."  The  new  methods  of 
"  compelling  them  to  come  in  "  were  branded  as  a  compulsion 
of  the  senses  rather  than  of  the  heart.  The  extravagant  bill- 
boards, advertising  church  services  in  the  language  of  the 
opera-bouflfe  poster,  he  felt  to  be  a  dishonor  and  a  reproach 
to  the  Lord  Christ.  Of  the  "  entertainments "  which  they 
hawked,  he  said  in  his  last  message  to  the  church : 

"  Certain  insects  conceal  their  presence  by  assuming  the 
color  of  the  tree  or  leaf  on  which  they  prey.  Church  amuse- 
ments are  simply  parasites  hiding  under  a  rehgious  exterior, 
while  they  eat  out  the  Hfe  of  Christianity." 

His  opposition  to  these  things  dated  back  to  the  earliest 
years  of  his  ministry.  His  own  church,  never  much  tainted 
with  the  canker,  had  silently  and  gradually,  with  the  develop- 
ment of  a  new  and  higher  religious  consciousness,  cast  aside 
all  such  devices. 

This  address  awakened,  together  with  a  wide  favorable  re- 
sponse, much  adverse  criticism,  as  is  always  the  case  when 
extensive  and  popular  abuses  are  attacked.  In  reply  to  these 
criticisms  a  counter-reply,  printed  in  part  below,  was  sent 
forth : 


1 62  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

"  To  invent  a  new  phrase  may  give  one  renown,  but  it 
may  be  as  perilous  as  to  invent  a  new  explosive  unless  one  is 
prepared  to  be  blown  up  by  his  own  compound.  They  were 
thrown  off  in  the  heat  of  fervid  utterance— this  expression, 
'  the  cooking-stove  apostasy,'  and  that  other,  '  the  amusement 
heresy ' — and  now  they  are  coming  back  without  having 
cooled  at  all  in  the  course  of  their  travels.  One  suggests  that 
the  author  must  have  relapsed  into  incorrigible  Puritanism, 
and  wonders  if  he  has  never  heard  of  the  love-feast  of  the 
early  church,  in  which  a  simple  meal  was  sanctified  to  the 
salutary  use  of  Christians,  and  made  a  means  of  nourishing 
their  social  joys.  To  which  we  reply  that  we  have  so  heard, 
and  that  we  remember  how  quickly  this  feast  degenerated, 
and  brought  in  such  abuses  that  it  called  out  the  stern  rebuke 
of  the  apostle,  '  What !  have  ye  not  houses  to  eat  and  to  drink 
in?  or  despise  ye  the  church  of  God?  '  Thus  it  is  that  inno- 
cent things  are  so  easily  spoiled  by  our  misuse  unless  we  are 
very  watchful.  This  is  exactly  oiu"  point.  Another  critic 
brings  the  accusation  of  pessimism.  As  though  that  were 
more  dangerous  than  the  shallow  optimism  which  glides  over 
the  surfaces  of  things  and  complacently  refuses  to  believe 
that  therj  may  be  perilous  depths  below!  We  desire  to  be 
neither  an  optimist  nor  a  pessimist,  but  a  truthist ;  and  such 
we  humbly  believe  we  are,  in  giving  the  note  of  warning 
suggested  by  these  phrases.   .   .  . 

"An  excellent  and  sober  Christian  of  fifty  years'  standing 
in  one  of  our  churches  meets  us  and  says,  'You  are  right, 
brother,  in  your  note  of  warning.  I  am  done  with  church 
sociables.  I  have  never  objected  to  such  gatherings  accom- 
panied by  a  simple  meal,  nor  do  I  now  object.  But  when  I 
found  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  that  our  church  had  en- 
gaged a  colored  man  to  furnish  the  supper,  and  when  I  saw 
him  there,  with  his  white  vest  and  white  gloves  and  profes- 
sional cookery,   I  said,  "  No  more  of  this."  '     By  which  he 


MISSIONS   OR  MAMMON?  163 

meant  to  say,  we  judge,  that  there  may  be  danger  of  getting 
a  ministry  of  three  orders  in  our  churches— pastor,  deacons, 
and  caterer,  the  last  in  white  vestments  manipulating  the 
ritual  of  pies  and  cakes.  And  we  think  his  alarm  is  well 
grounded.  Usage  sanctifies  the  most  incredible  innovations 
in  the  course  of  time.  It  is  far  easier  to  start  a  thing  than  to 
stop  it,  and  we  commend  the  wisdom  of  this  man  who  stepped 
out  when  the  caterer  stepped  in,  saying,  '  We  have  no  such 
custom,  neither  the  churches  of  God.'  .   .   . 

"  To  denounce  theater-going  from  that  pulpit  in  which  the 
theater  has  actually  been  set  up  is,  we  take  it,  a  very  ineffec- 
tive proceeding.  There  is  no  question  in  our  mind  as  to 
which  is  the  more  objectionable  for  Christians,  to  go  to  the 
playhouse,  or  to  bring  the  playhouse  into  the  church.   .   .   . 

"  To  one  who  asks  why  the  work  of  Christian  women  in 
preparing  dehcacies  to  be  sold  at  a  church  festival,  or  in  mak- 
ing goods  at  a  church  fair,  is  not  just  as  acceptable  to  the 
Lord  as  money,  especially  when  they  have  not  the  latter  to 
give,  we  reply,  the  work  is  acceptable  ;  but  the  principle  of 
raising  money  in  this  way  for  the  cause  of  Christ  is  what  we 
object  to.  To  get  an  equivalent  in  food  or  goods  for  the 
money  put  into  the  Lord's  treasury  robs  the  offering  of  its 
richest  element — that  of  sacrifice.  The  very  savor  and 
sweetness  of  a  gift  in  the  sight  of  God  are  contained  in  this, 
as  abundant  Scriptures  show.  In  God's  reckoning  the  value 
of  an  offering  depends  as  much  on  what  it  costs  the  giver  as 
on  what  it  nets  the  receiver.  Therefore  the  treasury  of  the 
Lord  is  vastly  more  enriched  by  the  widow's  mite  than  by  the 
widow's  muffins.    .   .   . 

"  '  But  what  can  poor  churches  in  the  country  do,  where 
money  is  scarce?  '  asks  another.  Let  them  do  a  little  in  the 
right  way,  rather  than  much  in  the  wrong  way.  '  For  the 
honor  of  Christ  I  pray  that  the  heathen  may  never  learn  how 
the  American  Christians  raise  money  for  missions,'   writes  a 


1 64  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  CORDON 

returned  missionary  in  a  recent  article.  And  what  advantage 
financially  would  it  be  for  them  to  learn  ?  The  Bassein  Baptist 
Christians  out  of  their  poverty  give  more  per  head  for  missions 
than  the  Baptist  Christians  of  Massachusetts  with  all  their 
wealth ;  that  is,  they  give  more  without  these  modern  methods 
than  we  do  with  them.  As  for  attracting  people  to  the  sanc- 
tuary, which  is  the  principal  aim  of  church  suppers  and  enter- 
tainments, what  is  gained  in  that  direction  compared  with  the 
immense  spiritual  loss  incurred?  In  a  certain  body  of  Chris- 
tians in  New  England  one  hundred  and  fifty-one  churches  re- 
port not  a  single  accession  by  conversion  during  the  last  year. 
We  know  something  of  the  ecclesiastical  machinery  by  which 
these  churches  are  carried  on,  and  how  almost  universally  the 
devices  which  we  are  considering  enter  into  their  established 
order.  Is  not  the  record  sad  enough,  and  does  it  not  seem 
to  call  out  the  pathetic  question  of  the  Lord,  '  Wherefore  do 
ye  spend  money  for  that  which  is  not  bread?  and  your  labor 
for  that  which  satisfieth  not?'  And  by  way  of  contrast, 
my  poor  brother,  a  pastor  from  Russia,  is  sitting  by  me  while 
I  write.  He  never  heard  of  a  church  entertainment  or  church 
supper  till  he  came  to  this  country,  and  has  not  a  single 
wheel  of  our  church  machinery  in  his  system.  Constantly 
persecuted,  seven  times  imprisoned,  once  sent  into  exile,  and 
with  no  place  to  gather  his  flock  except  his  own  private 
house,  yet  without  any  of  our  modern  appliances,  he  has  bap- 
tized in  the  region  about  his  home  four  hundred  converts  dur- 
ing the  last  two  years.  Does  not  this  suggest  how  much 
more  the  Lord  can  do  without  our  modern  improvements 
than  with  them?   .   .   . 

"  On  the  whole,  it  may  be  a  question  whether  we  have  not 
laid  undue  stress  of  late  on  the  mere  question  of  drawing  the 
masses.  Christianity  has  repulsions  as  well  as  attractions,  and 
these  two  are  so  perfectly  adjusted  as  to  hold  off  those  who 
care  only  for  the  loaves  and  fishes,  while  drawing  in  such  as 


MISSIONS   OR  MAMMON?  165 

are  ordained  to  eternal  life.  The  same  voice  which  says, 
'  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy-laden,'  also 
says,  '  If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself, 
and  take  up  his  cross,  and  follow  me.'  The  operation  of  this 
twofold  constraint  of  tenderness  and  severity  is  very  strikingly 
told  in  two  sentences  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles :  '  And 
believers  were  the  more  added  to  the  Lord ; '  '  And  of  the 
rest  durst  no  man  join  himself  to  them.'  To  enervate  our 
own  spiritual  life  in  our  effort  to  draw  the  masses  will  be  a 
very  great  price  to  pay  for  our  success,  if  we  gain  it.  Satan 
takes  all  ways  to  destroy  the  church.  Heaven  help  us  if, 
having  resisted  the  encroachments  of  Arianism,  we  should 
now  be  seduced  by  this  folly  of  vegetarianism.  To  deny  the 
cross  in  our  creed  is  a  fearful  thing ;  to  deny  it  in  hfe  may  be 
even  worse.  '  For  many  walk,  of  whom  I  have  told  you  often, 
and  now  tell  you  even  weeping,  that  they  are  the  enonies  of 
the  cross  of  Christ:  whose  end  is  destruction,  whose  God  is 
their  belly,  and  whose  glory  is  in  their  shame,  who  mind  earthly 
things.' " 

In  December,  1887,  Dr.  Gordon  addressed  the  meeting  of 
the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  Washington  on  "The  Responsibility 
Growing  out  of  our  Perils  and  Opportunities."  He  spoke  in 
part  as  follows : 

"  We  are  accustomed  to  say  that  responsibility  is  measured 
by  opportunity.  That  is  certainly  one  of  its  measures.  But 
there  are  two  factors  necessary  to  constitute  an  opportunity — 
the  ability  and  the  occasion.  There  may  be  the  ability  with- 
out the  occasion,  or  there  may  be  the  occasion  without  the 
abihty.  In  either  case  we  have  but  half  an  opportunity,  and 
this  cannot  evoke  any  very  great  responsibility.  But  where 
both  are  present  in  large  degree — ability  and  occasion — the 
upper  and  nether  millstones  of  accountability  have  come  to- 
gether, and  woe  be  to  the  Christian  who  gets  between  them. 
For  if  new  corn  is  not  ground  into  bread  for  a  suiTering  world, 


1 66  ADOXIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  owner  of  the  corn  will  be  ground.  If  he  does  not  give 
his  substance  he  will  be  in  danger  of  losing  his  soul.  It  is 
estimated  that  eight  billions  of  dollars  are  to-day  treasured 
up  in  the  hands  of  Protestant  Christians  in  the  United  States 
— a  sum  so  great  that  it  staggers  our  arithmetic  to  compute 
it.  That  is  one  element  of  our  abihty.  Into  our  doors  the 
untaught  and  unregenerate  populations  of  the  Old  World  are 
pouring  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  every  year,  while 
through  our  doors  we  can  look  out  upon  every  nation  of  the 
globe  as  a  field  ripe  for  missionary  harvest.  Here  is  our  oc- 
casion. It  is  enough  to  startle  one  into  alarm  to  think  of  the 
stupendous  obligation  created  by  the  conjunction  of  these 
two  elements.   .   .  . 

"  If  we  look  at  the  great  laboring-class  we  hear  from 
some  of  its  representatives  the  impatient  miirmurings  of  com- 
munism. I  know  of  no  answer  to  such  at  once  so  subduing 
and  so  potent  as  the  divine  communism  which  is  presented  in 
the  New  Testament.  I  open  the  first  chapter  of  the  church's 
history  and  read  this  remarkable  statement  concerning  the 
primitive  Christians :  '  And  all  that  beheved  were  together, 
and  had  all  things  common ;  and  sold  their  possessions  and 
goods,  and  parted  them  to  all  men,  as  every  man  had  need.  .  .  . 
Neither  said  any  of  them  that  aught  of  the  things  which  he 
possessed  was  his  own.'  At  once  I  hear  the  current  com- 
ment on  this  text  that  it  represents  only  a  provisional  and 
temporary  condition  of  things,  and  was  not  intended  for  a 
permanent  model.  Yes,  that  is  the  way  we  are  apt  to  look 
upon  ideals  which  are  too  high  for  our  faith  or  too  hard  for 
our  selfishness.  It  is  the  exegesis  of  covetousness  and  self- 
interest  that  has  largely  fixed  this  interpretation  upon  the  text. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  not  the  slightest  intimation  any- 
where that  this  feature  of  the  primitive  church  was  intended 
to  be  transitory.  I  for  one  am  profoundly  grateful  for  this 
lofty  and  divinely  appointed  example  of  Christian  commu- 


MISSIOXS   OR  MAMMON?  167 

nism.  Of  course  in  translating  this  example  into  practical  ex- 
perience we  must  take  into  account  all  the  modifying  texts : 
'  If  any  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat,'  which  excommu- 
nicates from  our  community  all  the  shiftless  and  idle ;  and  '  If 
any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  specially  for  those  of  his 
own  house,  he  hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an 
infidel,'  which  enjoins  upon  us  the  duty  of  making  decent 
provision  for  the  family.  What  we  find  as  a  resultant  is 
this :  that  the  church,  according  to  its  primitive  ideal,  is  the 
one  institution  in  which  every  man's  wealth  is  under  mortgage 
to  every  man's  want,  every  man's  success  to  every  man's  ser- 
vice. No  laborer  in  any  part  of  the  field  should  lack  the 
means  for  prosecuting  his  work  so  long  as  any  fellow-disciple 
elsewhere  has  ability  to  supply  his  lack.  This,  I  believe,  was 
the  divine  communism  on  which  the  church  was  founded,  and 
by  which  it  was  intended  to  be  perpetuated.  And  if  we  could 
present  to  the  discontented  working-classes  to-day  this  fresh, 
unsullied  ideal  in  active  operation  it  would  be  the  most  power- 
ful answer  possible  to  their  bitter  complaint  of  the  selfishness 
and  unsympathy  of  men.   .   .   . 

"  Two  centuries  ago  quaint  Thomas  Fuller  said,  '  If  any 
suppose  that  society  can  be  peaceful  while  one  half  is  pros- 
pered and  the  other  half  pinched,  let  him  try  whether  he  can 
laugh  with  one  side  of  his  face  while  he  weeps  with  the 
other.'  We  are  not  concerned,  however,  with  those  outside 
the  church,  but  those  within.  As  surely  as  darkness  follows 
sunset  will  the  alienation  of  the  masses  follow  sanctimonious 
selfishness  in  the  church.  .  .  ,  The  church  millionaire  stamls 
at  exact  antipodes  to  the  church  millennial,  and  in  proportion 
as  the  former  flourishes  the  latter  will  be  hopelessly  deferred. 
It  is  not  an  orthodox  creed  that  repels  the  masses,  but  an 
orthodox  greed.  Let  a  Christian  in  any  community  stand 
forth  conspicuously  as  honest  as  the  law  of  Moses,  yet  build- 
ing up  an  immense  fortune  by  grinding  the  faces  of  the  poor, 


l68  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

compelling  them  all  the  while  to  turn  the  grindstone,  and 
he  will  wean  a  whole  generation  from  the  gospel.  .  .  .  We 
have  no  power  to  prevent  men  of  the  world  from  heaping  up 
colossal  fortunes.  But  our  gospel  plainly  forbids  Christians 
to  do  it.  '  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth,' 
said  Jesus  to  his  disciples  for  all  time.  It  requires  no  very 
skilful  exegesis  to  explain  the  text ;  but  it  would  require  a  very 
ingenious  exegesis  to  explain  it  away. 

"  Dr.  McGlynn  told  the  exact  truth  when  he  recently  declared 
the  corruption  of  the  church  traceable  to  two  things— Roman 
gold  and  Roman  purple.  As  fast  as  the  church  became  a 
coffer  for  hoarding  coveted  wealth  she  became  a  coffin  for 
enshrining  a  dead  Christianity.  And  to-day  the  scandal  of 
Christendom  is  exhibited  to  our  gaze  in  a  pope  claiming  to  be 
the  true  and  only  Vicar  of  Christ,  living  in  a  palace  with  six 
hundred  attendants,  and  enjoying  a  personal  income  of  a 
million  and  a  half  dollars  annually.  Oh,  if,  according  to  the 
dream  of  devout  Catholics  of  the  middle  ages,  some  papa 
angelicus  were  to  arise,  an  angel-pope  who  would  fling  out 
this  vast  and  prodigal  church  wealth  among  his  penniless  sub- 
jects, while  he  himself  once  more  took  up  the  primitive  com- 
mission and  went  forth  without  purse  or  scrip,  what  an  *  anti- 
poverty  '  argument  would  that  be  for  men  and  angels  to  wit- 
ness! I  say  all  this  not  to  cast  gratuitous  contempt  on 
Rome,  but  to  bring  a  solemn  warning  to  America.  That 
eight  billions  of  hoarded  money  constitutes  a  tremendous 
danger.  I  cannot  see  how  the  church  can  keep  hold  of  it 
and  be  able  at  the  same  time  to  take  hold  of  the  million 
hands  of  poverty  and  illiteracy  and  spiritual  destitution  which 
are  stretched  out  for  help.   .   .   . 

"  In  this  world,  as  well  as  in  the  world  to  come,  there  is  an 
impassable  gulf  between  Dives  and  Lazarus.  If  the  church 
deliberately  chooses  the  company  of  Dives,  putting  on  purple 
and  fine  Hnen  and  faring  sumptuously  every  day,  she  cannot 


MISSIOiVS   OK  MAMMON?  169 

keep  with  Lazarus.  The  attempt  may  be  made  to  effect 
concihation  by  tossing  biscuits  across  the  gulf.  But  this  will 
not  do.  It  is  not  money  that  is  wanted,  to  bring  the  dis- 
affected masses  into  sympathy  with  the  church,  so  much  as 
fellowship.  The  word  koinoiiia,  '  community,'  or  '  having  in 
common,'  is  a  great  characteristic  word  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  church  is  a  heavenly  commonwealth,  in  which  there  is  a 
community  of  life  with  the  Head  and  a  community  of  goods 
with  the  members  and  a  community  of  sympathy  with  the 
world.  If  only  the  church  could  once  more  stand  forth  trans- 
figured in  its  primitive  ideal,  it  would  be  certain  to  repeat  its 
primitive  conquests.  Let  the  ministers  of  our  great  metropol- 
itan churches  who  enjoy  munificent  salaries  begin  the  reform 
by  becoming  like  the  chief  apostle— poor,  that  they  may  make 
many  rich ;  and  let  the  millionaire  pewholders  follow  their 
lead  by  parting  their  goods  to  such  as  have  need.  Then  see 
if  the  growing  spirit  of  communism  will  not  be  speedily 
arrested,  not  by  the  counter-irritant  of  ridicule,  but  by  the 
emollient  of  Christ-like  example.   .   .   . 

"If  we  look  to  the  upper  and  best-educated  classes  of 
society  we  are  confronted  with  a  wide-spread  and  growing 
agnosticism.  And  what  is  agnosticism?  It  is  culture  ending 
in  ignorance,  as  the  highest  mountain-peaks  are  lost  in  clouds. 
I  would  not  deride  or  pour  contempt  on  this  tendency  lest  I 
be  guilty  of  what  an  old  writer  has  called  '  beating  a  cripple 
over  the  head  with  his  own  crutches.'  A  loud-mouthed  and 
boastful  infidehty  may  awaken  our  contempt,  but  a  lame 
faith,  stretching  out  its  hands  toward  the  great  mysteries  of 
life  and  eternity,  deserves  to  be  pitied  rather  than  pelted. 
And  so  I  have  delighted  to  quote  to  men  of  this  school  the 
words  of  Scripture  concerning  our  great  High  Priest,  'who 
can  have  compassion  on  the  ignorant  [the  agnooushi,  the 
agnostics],  and  on  them  that  are  out  of  the  way.' 

"  But  how  shall  the  church  meet   this   growing  sentiment 


170  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

outside  the  church?  I  may  surprise  you  when  I  answer, 
With  a  humble  Christian  agnosticism. 

"  Christianity  is  not  a  system  of  philosophy,  but  a  revelation 
to  faith.  The  attempt  to  survey  and  map  out  its  doctrines 
according  to  our  logic  charts  has  always  proved  injurious. 
If  theologians  insist  upon  being  wise  above  what  is  written, 
neologians,  by  a  natural  reaction,  will  be  ignorant  below 
what  is  written.  I  am  a  most  decided  believer  in  a  positive 
gospel,  and  concerning  everything  that  has  been  revealed  I 
think  we  may  be  just  as  sure  as  concerning  the  conclusions  of 
mathematics.  But  not  everything  which  we  desire  to  know 
has  been  revealed.  The  gospel  exhibits  a  divine  reserve  as 
well  as  a  divine  revelation,  and  the  same  voice  of  the  great 
Teacher  which  declares  concerning  one  realm  of  truth,  '  To 
you  it  is  given  to  know,'  declares  concerning  another  realm, 
'  It  is  not  for  you  to  know.' 

"  Now  while  upon  such  questions  as,  for  example,  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body  at  Christ's  second  coming  there  is  a  flood 
of  light  from  Scripture,  upon  the  state  and  employments  of 
the  soul  between  death  and  resurrection  hardly  a  ray  of  light 
has  been  thrown.  And  while  the  most  positive  information 
has  been  vouchsafed  as  to  what  God  will  do  for  the  heathen 
who  hear  and  believe  the  gospel,  he  has  nowhere  informed 
us  exactly  what  will  be  the  ground  and  method  of  his  dealings 
with  those  heathen  who  have  never  heard  it.  Yet  such 
minute  surveys  of  the  terra  incognita  of  the  intermediate  state 
have  been  attempted,  and  such  learned  conclusions  concern- 
ing this  mystery  of  the  heathen's  accountability  have  been  put 
forth,  that  great  religious  bodies  have  been  set  in  battle  array, 
and  vast  missionary  interests  have  been  imperiled.  If  the 
most  learned  man  in  the  whole  fraternity  of  theologians  had 
long  ago  faced  these  questions  with  a  positive  and  dogmatic 
*  I  don't  know,'  he  would  have  been  worthy  to  be  counted  '  a 
prophet,  and  more  than  a  prophet.' 


MISSIONS  Ok  MAMMON f  171 

"  It  has  been  the  misfortune  of  Christian  philosophers  from 
the  beginning  that  they  have  made  theology  '  dark  with  ex- 
cess of  hght.'  The  heresies  which  have  afflicted  the  church 
have,  almost  without  exception,  been  invented  by  learned 
scholars ;  and  the  speculations  which  have  blighted  the  faith 
of  beUevers  have  generally  been  hatched  and  brooded  in  the 
theological  schools.  The  great  mass  of  plain  and  practical 
Christians  have,  as  a  rule,  kept  the  faith  in  its  purity ;  for 
they  have  been  content  to  believe  more  than  they  know,  and 
to  accept  more  than  they  can  understand.  Reason  and  faith 
are  like  the  two  compartments  of  an  hour-glass :  when  one  is 
full  the  other  is  empty.  Those  who  have  determined  to  know 
all  things,  revealed  and  unrevealed,  have  often  thereby  re- 
duced their  faith  to  the  minimum,  and  in  so  doing  have  con- 
tracted the  very  faculty  by  which  we  are  to  apprehend  God. 

"  Now  what  I  am  urging  is  this,  that  as  sumptuous  wealth 
in  the  hands  of  the  church  has  always  proved  a  curse,  so  a 
sumptuous  learning  in  the  schools  of  theology  has  proved  too 
frequently  a  blight  upon  the  faith  and  piety  of  Christians. 
Agnosticism  is  the  spiritual  pauperism  which  stands  over 
against  the  theological  and  philosophical  wealth  with  which 
men  attempt  to  endow  the  gospel.  Paul  declares  that  in  giv- 
ing the  gospel  God  'destroyed  the  wisdom  of  the  wise.'  If 
this  wisdom  of  the  wise  gets  installed  in  our  theological  chairs 
and  presides  there,  it  will  in  turn  destroy  the  gospel.  It  is 
written  that  '  when  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it 
pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them 
that  believe.'  If  the  wisdom  of  this  world  attempts  to  reverse 
this  order,  and  to  please  men  by  the  learnedness  of  preaching, 
it  will  darken  and  bewilder  those  that  would  believe. 

"  Here,  I  solemnly  conceive,  is  one  of  the  most  serious 
perils  to  which  our  Protestant  ministry  is  exposed  to-day,  viz., 
that  it  shall  be  impoverished  by  excess  of  learning,  that  it 
shall  attach  the  first  importance  to  German  learning  and  to 


172  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Greek  philosophy,  instead  of  going  forth  with  the  humble 
equipment  of  the  Word  of  God.  I  am  perpetually  chagrined 
to  see  how  much  better  many  of  the  unschooled  lay  preachers 
of  our  time  can  handle  the  Scriptures  than  many  clergymen 
who  have  passed  through  the  theological  curriculum.  I  do 
not  undervalue  the  seminary  in  saying  this,  but  beg  that  we 
should  consider  the  point  at  which  it  is  most  conspicuously 
failing.  I  wish,  for  one,  that  no  more  chairs  might  be  en- 
dowed in  our  theological  institutions  for  teaching  the  relations 
of  Christianity  to  science ;  that  those  courses  in  polemics, 
which  stuff  men's  heads  full  of  the  history  of  all  the  heresies 
which  have  afflicted  the  church  from  the  beginning,  might  be 
shortened  more  and  more,  and  that  the  time  thus  saved  might 
be  given  to  studying  the  Bible  and  practising  with  the  'sword 
of  the  Spirit.' 

"  Magnificent  and  far  surpassing  all  that  has  gone  before 
is  the  electr  c  light ;  but  the  shadow  which  it  casts  is  the  dark- 
est and  den  est  that  ever  yet  fell  upon  earth.  And  I  believe 
that  in  New  England,  where  the  light  of  philosophic  Chris- 
tianity has  been  the  most  brilliant  and  the  intellectual  lenses 
and  reflectors  for  its  diffusion  the  most  clear  and  polished, 
the  shadows  of  agnosticism  and  atheism  fall  most  darkly. 

"  Would  that  our  teachers  of  theology  were  content  to  know 
less  that  they  might  know  more,  that  they  were  less  endued 
with  the  spirit  of  modern  thought  and  more  deeply  baptized 
by  that  Spirit  that  has  been  sent  to  us  '  that  we  might  know 
the  things  that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God.' " 


CHAPTER  XIV 

" SEASONABLY  OUT    OF    SEASON  " 

Northfield  and  its  conferences  —  Dr.  Gordon's  spiritual  experiences  — 
Work  at  Seabright  —  Summer  ministries  in  New  Hampshire  and  on 
the  Atlantic 

THERE  are  few  lovelier  spots  than  Northfield.  The 
broad  Connecticut  flowing  with  many  a  sweeping  bend 
between  green  hills  and  rich  intervales,  the  "  sweet  aisles  of 
the  wilderness"  stretching  beyond  the  town,  and  the  long 
street  lined  with  elms,  which,  like  the  clustered  pillars  of  a 
church,  meet  overhead  in  green  vaulting  with  a  fan-tracery  of 
foliage,  unite  to  give  to  it  a  peculiar  attractiveness.  The  con- 
ferences here,  which  have  come  to  fill  so  important  a  place  in 
the  current  life  of  American  Christianity,  were  first  organized 
by  Mr.  Moody  in  1880.  The  old  camp-meeting  of  the  stormy 
and  emotional  type  was  a  thing  of  the  past ;  the  system  of 
summer  schools,  so  widely  developed  nowadays,  was  as  yet 
in  its  infancy.  Into  the  Northfield  plan  both  ideas  enter. 
The  demonstrative  zeal  of  the  earlier  institution  is  tempered 
and  corrected  by  sober  Scripture  study,  while  to  the  quiet, 
meditative,  scholastic  tone  of  a  summer  school  of  theology  an 
element  of  enthusiasm  and  of  practicality  is  added  by  the 
presence  of  evangelists,  missionaries,  and  working  pastors. 
Here  gather  summer  after  summer  the  evangelists  Whittle, 
Needham,  Munhall,  Mills,  Chapman,  and  the  rest  who  go 
from  town  to  town  and  from  city  to  city,  preaching,  as 
did  the  Franciscans  of  old,  to  men  of  all  sorts  and  condi- 

173 


1  74  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

tions.  Able,  faithful,  self-denying  workers  in  city  slums  are 
here  too,  and  of  those  from  heathen  fields  not  a  few :  Hud- 
son Taylor,  the  organizer  and  forger  of  that  great  instrument 
for  the  evangelization  of  China,  the  Inland  Mission ;  Bishop 
Thobum,  the  statesman  missionary,  who  has  wrought  in  India 
a  work  second  only  to  that  of  Duff  and  of  Martyn  ;  Ashmore, 
with  his  unshaken  faith  in  China  as  a  great  figure  in  the  en- 
larged Christendom  to  be  ;  Chamberlain  of  the  Arcot  Mission, 
Post  of  Syria,  and  scores  of  others.  For  speakers  and  teach- 
ers the  great  globe  itself  is  ransacked,  the  best  men  in  the 
world-church  being  brought  into  service.  Hither  have  come 
the  courtly,  piquant  Drummond  from  Edinburgh,  Pierson, 
mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  Andrew  Murray,  the  saintly  mystic 
of  South  Africa,  Andrew  Bonar,  John  McNeill,  F.  B.  Meyer, 
Webb-Peploe,  and  more  of  equal  note.  Their  message  is 
intensified  and  multiplied  in  that  they  preach  to  the  preachers 
and  lead  the  leaders  of  the  people.  Yet  hundreds  of  laymen 
as  well  gather  about  them,  the  most  devout  and  earnest  in  the 
churches.  These  are  brought  into  relation  with  missionaries 
and  Christian  workers.  A  medium  of  contact  is  thus  estab- 
lished fruitful  in  its  influence.  Finally,  the  wholesome  inter- 
denominationahsm  of  the  place  establishes  the  best  bonds  of 
Christian  unity. 

Dr.  Gordon's  connection  with  these  conferences  runs  back 
almost  to  the  beginning.  Summer  after  summer  he  resigned 
his  much-needed  rest  that  he  might  give  to  eager  hearers  his 
view  of  the  truth.  To  Mr.  Moody  he  was  as  a  right  hand. 
Often  did  the  great  evangelist  dwell  upon  his  readiness  to  do 
any  service,  to  take  any  place,  to  stand  in  any  gap.  "  I  can- 
not thank  you  enough,"  he  wrote  one  summer,  when  his  ab- 
sence had  thrown  the  whole  charge  of  the  conference  upon 
Dr.  Gordon,  "for  your  great  help  at  Northfield.  All  the 
letters  I  have  got  from  there  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of 
your  generalship.     I  know  of  no  one  who  could  have  taken 


"SEASONABLY  OUT  OF  SEASON"  175 

your  place,  //  will  now  answer  the  question  what  is  going  to 
become  of  the  work  when  I  am  gone.  May  the  Lord  reward 
you  a  thousandfold." 

Of  the  addresses  which  he  delivered  here  one  writes  :* 
"  His  preaching  was  as  far  as  possible  from  any  mere 
oratorical  performance.  He  had  the  graces  of  the  finished 
speaker,  but  they  were  all  invested  with  the  higher  grace  of 
God's  ambassador.  He  taught  with  authority,  but  it  was 
with  a  derived  and  deputed  authority.  Among  all  the  re- 
nowned speakers  at  the  Northfield  Conference,  he  vfa.s  facile 
princeps;  and  the  address  he  gave  there  last  summer  on  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  been  pronounced  by  competent  judges  the 
most  complete  ever  given,  even  from  that  platform  of  great 
teachers.  There  was  this  supreme  charm  in  his  utterances, 
that,  while  those  who  are  less  taught  of  the  Spirit  seek  to  de- 
fend the  inspiration  and  inerrancy  of  the  Word  of  God,  he  so 
exhibited  its  wonders,  so  led  the  way  into  its  mysteries,  so  un- 
folded its  hidden  riches,  and  showed  such  articulated  and 
organic  unity  in  all  its  parts  and  members,  that  doubt  was  dis- 
armed, and  scholarly  '  criticism '  hesitated  to  use  the  scientific 
scalpel  upon  a  body  of  truth  instinct  with  the  living  Spirit  of 
God!" 

The  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  which,  wonderful  as  it 
is,  bids  fair  to  be  but  the  spray  of  the  incoming  tide  of  mis- 
sionary activity,  dates  back  to  the  conference  of  '86.  The 
gathering  of  representatives  from  the  colleges  of  the  nation — 
a  constituency  of  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
young  men  and  women — is  an  important  feature  of  North- 
field  summers.  The  healthy,  sunbrowned,  muscular  Chris- 
tianity of  the  afternoon  athletic  fields,  and  the  missionary 
enthusiasm  of  the  conference  hours,  delighted  Dr.  Gordon's 
heart.  For  the  amusing  competition  in  national  bombast 
'twixt  English  and  American  at  the  Fourth  of  July  fete,  with 
*  Dr.  Arthur  T.  Pierson. 


176  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

all  the  contending  and  ridiculous  claims  to  national  prece- 
dence, he  had  a  keen  relish.  But  his  chief  gi^atification,  of 
course,  was  that  of  the  teacher  with  apt  and  willing  pupils. 
Upon  these  perfervid  and  eager  hearts  his  influence  was  great 
and  beneficent. 

"  I  was  announced  this  afternoon,"  he  ^\Tites,  "  with  quite 
a  flourish  of  trumpets,  but  fear,  from  my  excessive  weariness, 
that  I  responded  but  with  a  jews'-harp.  ...  I  would  not 
have  missed  the  summer  school.  It  is  an  event  great  in  re- 
sults. The  missionary  enthusiasm  has  been  a  feature  which 
has  astonished  us  all.  It  came  to  be  the  ruling  idea  when  I 
left,  and  over  sixty  names  were  down  as  pledged  to  that  work. 
Almost  the  entire  delegation  from  Princeton  was  included.  I 
could  but  rejoice  at  the  demonstration  given  that  the  children 
of  godly  and  self-denying  parents  do  follow  in  the  way  of  the 
fathers  and  mothers ;  for  there  were  nearly  ten  missionary 
sons  there,  all  of  them  on  fire  with  missionary  zeal ;  and  all 
but  one,  who  is  a  confirmed  invahd,  are  bent  on  returning  to 
the  foreign  field.  Indeed,  this  one  says  that  it  is  his  greatest 
regret  that  he  is  deprived  of  this  privilege.  And  so  I  have 
given  him  a  long  talk  to-day  on  divine  healing.  I  hope  he 
may  yet  lay  hold  of  this." 

And  at  another  time  he  writes  to  his  wife : 

"  It  is  really  so  that  a  great  opportunity  has  been  open  be- 
fore me.  Doctrines  which  are  so  obvious  and  plain  to  me 
seem  so  strange  to  many  to  whom  I  minister.  I  think  we 
planted  seeds  on  Mount  Hermon  which,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
will  yield  a  good  harvest.  The  day  I  came  away  they  were 
to  have  a  consecration  meeting.  Mr.  Moody  said,  '  All  who 
want  such  a  meeting,  and  are  ready  to  yield  themselves 
wholly  to  God,  come.'  I  expected  a  remarkable  time.  The 
questions  which  they  asked  about  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
are  the  hardest  I  have  to  answer.  Questions  of  experience 
are  so  much  more  difficult  than  questions  of  doctrine.     For 


''SEASONABLY  OUT  OF  SEASON''  \11 

while  '  the  testimony  of  the  Lord  is  sure,"  the  testimony  of 
consciousness  is  very  variable,  hke  the  impression  on  the  sea 
beach,  which  the  next  wave  may  change.  So  after  Mr. 
Moody  had  given  his  experience  of  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit 
because  the  students  called  for  it,  I  confessed  to  much  shrink- 
ing and  reluctance  when  they  made  the  same  demand  of  me. 
The  boys  would  have  all  that  could  be  known  both  of  doctrine 
and  experience.  A  hungrier  crowd  one  rarely  finds ;  may  the 
Lord  give  us  more  and  more  to  tell.  .  .  .  Mr.  Moody  in- 
quired tenderly  for  you.  He  seems  set  on  seeing  you  at 
Northfield  this  year.  So  have  the  axles  of  baby's  chariot 
greased,  and  have  the  canopy  swung  for  the  journey.  That 
princely  carriage,  with  its  sweet-faced  occupant,  often  comes 
before  me  in  my  waking  visions,  and  or  ever  I  am  aware  my 
soul  makes  me  like  the  chariots  of  Ammi-nadib,  and  I  am 
impatient  to  go  near  and  join  myself  to  that  chariot.  Love 
to  all,  and  blessings  on  the  httle  one  especially." 

And  again,  after  describing  the  Northfield  convocation  of 
'85  as  a  great  meeting  of  men  of  many  tongues  and  of  diverse 
denominational  connections,  he  says,  "  Notwithstanding  this 
variety  of  denominational  standing,  there  was  absolute  har- 
mony in  doctrinal  deliverances.  We  doubt  if  a  convention 
made  up  of  any  one  of  the  above-named  bodies  could  be  held 
fourteen  days  and  preserve  such  entire  unanimity  of  senti- 
ment. Indeed,  we  are  persuaded  that  those  who  have  mastered 
and  who  correctly  maintain  the  three  A's  of  Christianity  ^the 
Atonement,  the  Advocacy,  and  the  Advent— will  find  them- 
selves in  close  accord  on  all  other  points.  One  entire  day  was 
given  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  second  coming.  All  the 
speakers  held  strongly  to  the  premillennial  advent,  and  found  in 
it  the  key-note  which  brought  their  whole  system  into  accord." 

One  of  the  interesting  features  of  Gordon's  later  ministry 
at  Northfield  was  the  evening  baptism  in  the  lake  which  has, 
since  his  death,  been  called  after  his  name.     These  services 


178  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

were  of  great  solemnity.  The  assembled  people,  the  soft 
singing  in  the  eventide  air,  the  majestic  baptismal  formula, 
"  Know  ye  not  that  so  many  of  us  as  were  baptized  into  Jesus 
Christ  were  baptized  into  his  death?  "  the  face  as  it  had  been 
the  face  of  an  angel,  the  broken  waters,  and  the  resurrection 
chant  at  the  end — these  things  can  never  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  stood  by  the  water's  edge. 

The  letters  which  follow  touch  closely  upon  Northfield,  and 
illustrate  from  Dr.  Gordon's  personal  experience  the  doctrine 
of  "  enduement  for  service,"  which  he  preached  with  so  much 
power  at  the  conferences. 

"  Dr.  Gordon,"  writes  Mr.  George  C.  Needham,  "  unhke 
some  Christians,  believed  there  was  something  always  beyond. 
This  he  ever  sought  to  attain.  Fifteen  years  ago,  during  the 
first  Northfield  convention,  he  was  desirous  to  secure  what  he 
yet  needed  as  a  saint  and  servant  of  Christ.  Toward  the 
close  of  those  memorable  ten  days,  spent  more  in  prayer  than 
in  preaching,  my  beloved  friend  joined  me  in  a  midnight  hour 
of  great  heart-searching  and  infilling  of  the  Spirit.  He  read 
with  peculiar  tenderness  our  Lord's  intercessory  prayer  of 
John  xvii.  The  union  of  the  believer  with  Christ  and  the 
Father,  as  taught  by  our  Lord  in  that  chapter,  called  out  fer- 
vent exclamations,  while  with  deep  pathos  he  continued  read- 
ing. During  united  prayer  which  followed  the  holy  man 
poured  out  his  soul  with  a  freedom  and  unction  indescribable. 
I  never  heard  him  boast  of  any  spiritual  attainment  reached 
during  that  midnight  hour.  Soul  experiences  were  to  him 
very  sacred,  and  not  to  be  rehearsed  on  every  ordinary  oc- 
casion. But  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  received  then  a  divine 
touch  which  further  ennobled  his  personal  life  and  made  his 
ministry  of  ever-increasing  spirituality  and  of  ever-widening 
breadth  of  sympathy." 

The  work  at  Northfield  finished,  he  had  hurried  down  to 
the  New  Jersey  coast  to  preach  on  Sunday  at  Seabright, 


"SEASONABLY  OUT  OF  SEASON"  1 79 

"  It's  a  great  way,"  he  writes,  "  people  have  of  coming  to 
the  beach,  Hving  in  wooden  cottages  of  three  or  four  Httle 
rooms — the  sand  knee-deep,  no  cooHng  shade,  but  'sacred 
high,  eternal  noon,'  and  the  glare  of  the  sun  intensifying  the 
noonday.  Moody  cannot  endure  the  sea-shore.  His  green 
fields  and  ever-shadowing  hills  and  deep-roUing  Connecticut 
are  his  paradise.  So  my  native  hills  and  quiet  shades  at  New 
Hampton  are  to  me.  I  long  to  be  back  thereto.  .  .  .  Mrs. 
A has  instituted  beach  meetings  for  the  fishermen  and  sea- 
side rabble,  and  not  only  they  came  out  yesterday,  but  a  great 
company  of  the  gay  and  fashionable.  It  was  a  fine  sight, 
but  not  an  easy  service  to  manage,  since  the  breakers  are  very 
noisy,  and  the  sound  of  many  waters  is  a  very  unequal  rival 
when  brought  into  competition  with  my  voice.  However,  I 
think  I  made  them  hear.     May  the  Lord  bless  the  Word." 

Of  the  humble,  self-denying  work  of  the  afternoon  previous 
— a  ministry  which  we  believe  should  be  connected  with  the 
midnight  hour  at  Northfield — he  does  not  speak.  It  came 
out  after  his  death  in  the  following  note : 

"  I  want  to  add  my  name  to  the  long  list  of  those  to  whom 
dear  Dr.  Gordon  brought  almost  the  greatest  spiritual  blessing 
that  I  ever  had.  No  one  knew  how  much  he  was  to  me ;  he 
never  knew.  At  Seabright,  years  ago,  he  kindly,  and  without 
our  having  any  especial  claim  upon  him,  came  to  us  to  preach 
in  the  chapel  and  the  little  reading-room  where  the  fishermen 
met.  Many  a  time  have  I  seen  him  on  his  knees  beside  those 
common,  rough  men,  praying  and  leading  them  into  the  king- 
dom of  God.  I  remember  how  new  to  me  his  way  was  of 
leading  sinners  to  Christ,  I  learned  a  little  about  it  from 
him.  I  remember  his  once  coming  from  Northfield  after  the 
August  conference.  He  seemed  filled  with  the  Spirit ;  he 
could  not  talk  commonplaces.  He  said  he  had  had  a  great 
blessing.  He  went  to  his  room,  and  came  out  shortly  after 
and  said  he  was  going  down  to  the  fisher  village,  and  asked 


i8o  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  way.  He  did  not  come  back  until  we  were  at  dinner — 
that  hot  afternoon.  He  had  visited  the  beer  and  liquor  saloons 
and  prayed  with  the  men  there,  and  had  been  among  the 
shanties.  I  know  more  than  one  family  saved  that  day.  His 
dear  kind  sympathy  and  instruction  and  his  family  prayers — 
oh,  how  much  they  were  in  our  home !  His  book, '  The  Two- 
fold Life,'  is  one  of  the  few  religious  books  I  keep  on  my 
table  and  near  my  heart.  He  gave  it  me  on  my  birthday 
some  years  ago.  AVhenever  he  came  to  New  York  he  made 
us  a  real  pastoral  visit." 

His  ministry  in  his  native  town  was  continuous  through  all 
the  summers  of  his  life.  As  regularly  as  the  day  of  rest  settled 
down  on  the  quiet  hills,  could  he  be  seen,  with  Bible  under 
his  arm,  walking  the  long,  maple-shaded  village  street  to  the 
little  white  meeting-house  with  its  importunately  resonant  bell. 
In  later  years  it  was  his  special  joy  to  preach  in  the  afternoons 
also,  in  a  church  building  dismantled  and  long  disused.  Sit- 
uated near  the  line  of  an  adjacent  township,  the  "  Dana  Meet- 
ing-house "  was  central  to  several  communities,  and  on  oc- 
casion could  draw  on  a  widely  scattered  constituency  of  back 
farms  as  well.  On  many  occasions  Dr.  Gordon  held  here 
all-day  services,  preaching  twice  or  thrice,  and  conducting  in- 
quiry meetings.  What  a  delight  these  informal  gatherings 
were  to  him!  How  he  would  revel  in  illustration  drawn 
from  the  every-day  life  of  the  farm!  The  oxen  bearing  the 
yoke,  the  sheep  straying  on  the  mountain-side,  the  seed  thrown 
into  the  fresh  furrow — how  admirably  were  the  parables  of 
the  gospels  translated  into  the  homely  correspondences  of  New 
England  country  life!  His  great  gifts  of  illustration  and  of 
story-telling  were  used  with  charming  appositeness  and  sim- 
plicity. And  very  eagerly  did  the  matter-of-fact  people  drink 
in  these  practical  and  pictorial  expositions  of  the  words  of 
Christ.  We  shall  never  forget  those  still  August  afternoons, 
the  long  grass  waving  lazily  in  the  occasional  breezes,  the 


J 

ii^ 

'"Z3 

The   Dana  Mleting-House. 


"SEASONABLY  OUT  OF  SEASON''  i8i 

woolly  masses  of  clouds  heaped  on  the  steel-blue  sky-fields, 
the  motley  teams  tied  to  the  dilapidated  fences  and  to  the  low 
branches  of  trees,  and  that  mellifluous  voice  sending  its  full 
diapason  out  of  the  open  windows  and  doors.  Inside,  the 
people  sat  in  old-fashioned  box  pews,  facing  in  all  directions, 
and  in  the  high  pulpit— so  high  that  his  head  could  not  have 
been  much  more  than  two  feet  from  the  ceiling— stood  the 
preacher.  On  the  shelf-like  desk  lay  the  familiar  worn  Greek 
Testament,  open  to  some  chapter  in  Colossians  or  Luke  which 
was  to  serve  as  the  subject-matter  of  the  discourse.  Scripture 
was  compared  with  Scripture,  words  were  traced  from  gospel 
to  epistle,  and  from  epistle  back  to  prophecy,  and  then  placed 
in  such  collocation  as  to  bring  out  in  full  force  the  profound 
verities.  How  our  hearts  burned  within  us  as  we  sat  in  those 
quaint  boxes  and  hstened  anew  to  the  recital  of  the  blessed 
truths  and  hopes!  Here  were  no  metaphysics  to  confound 
and  weary  untaught  souls,  no  prideful  rhetoric,  no  worldly 
display  of  learning,  but  rather  "  simple  Christ  to  simple  men  " 
— just  such  homely  teaching  as  Latimer  employed  in  the 
villages  of  sixteenth-century  England,  and  as  Whitefield  used 
hard  by  the  coal-pits  of  Lancashire. 

Nor  was  the  summer  work  in  New  Hampshire  confined  to 
his  own  town.  He  was  for  some  years  a  sort  of  bishop — 
without  the  lawn  and  title  of  ecclesiasticism — to  the  dismantled 
churches  of  the  abandoned  farms.  What  more  characteristic 
of  the  real,  the  primitive  bishop  than  this  work  of  strengthen- 
ing and  stablishing  the  perishing  churches  of  a  half-deserted 
country?  How  characteristic,  too,  of  Gordon's  humiHty  of 
spirit!  Why  should  he,  with  his  great,  prosperous  city  church, 
care  to  trouble  himself  with  these  poor,  decadent,  cross-roads 
meeting-houses,  with  their  bare  handful  of  unspiritual,  unlet- 
tered folk!  Surely  no  man  needed  more  the  "total  rest"  of 
his  few  weeks.  To  none  would  the  summer  days  have  passed 
more  delightfully  with  the  last  volume  of  history  or  of  current 


1 82  A  DON/RAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

theological  discussion ;  but  his  meat  and  drink  was  to  do  the 
will  of  Him  that  sent  him.  His  labor  and  his  recreation,  his 
toilsome  life  and  his  brief  vacations,  had  but  one  aim  and  in- 
terest. The  extension  of  God's  kingdom  in  New  Hampshire 
was  to  him  as  important  as  its  advancement  in  the  crowded 
cities  of  India  and  China,  or  along  the  watercourses  of  cen- 
tral Africa.  And  so  "out  of  season"  he  preached  and 
worked,  as  well  as  in  those  months  which  are  assigned  for  the 
formal  duties  of  the  pulpit. 

The  extent  of  this  rural  work  is  surprising  when  we  recall 
it  in  detail.  He  bore  many  little  constituencies  on  his  heart 
and  mind.  Now  he  would  arrange  for  furnishing  this  country 
church  with  hymn-books,  now  for  the  systematic  visitation  of 
some  neglected  region,  now  for  the  supply  of  some  unoccupied 
pulpit  by  the  students  of  his  training-school.  Several  years 
since  he  aided  in  the  reorganization  of  a  church  in  the  little 
town  of  Salisbury,  Webster's  birthplace,  and  had  the  great  joy 
of  placing  over  it  one  of  the  stanch  "  redeemed  men "  of 
Clarendon  Street — one  who  had  been  saved  from  the  horrible 
pit  and  the  miry  clay  of  drunkenness.  The  summer  before 
his  death  he  went  up  to  Jefferson,  in  the  far  north  of  the  State, 
after  a  laborious  week's  convention  in  Maine,  and  with  the 
usual  ten  days  of  Northfield  before  him.  The  church  there, 
after  having  been  closed  many  years,  had  been  resuscitated 
by  the  labor  of  one  of  his  students — a  woman.  At  her  earnest 
solicitation,  foregoing  his  own  wish  to  join  his  family,  and  at 
the  expense  of  all  the  vexations  which  insufficient  and  un- 
timely railroad  connections  imply,  he  spent  a  Sunday  there, 
preaching,  baptizing,  administering  the  communion,  and  ex- 
horting the  infant  church  to  unity,  godliness,  and  patient 
labor. 

It  was  his  often  expressed  belief  that  "the  deadness  and 
dearth  everywhere  here  "  could  be  arrested  only  by  the  preach- 
ing of  common  men  who  knew  the  Scriptures  and  eschewed 


"SEASONABLY  OUT  OF  SEASON''  183 

philosophizing.  He  longed  for  a  renaissance  of  the  class  of 
"  farmer  preachers  "  with  which  his  boyhood  had  been  familiar. 
"  Three  of  the  four  churches  which  stood  in  the  town  where  I 
am  staying  this  summer,"  he  once  said  in  a  Northfield  address, 
"  were  manned  by  farmers.  When  higher  education  came 
they  felt  themselves  crowded  out,  and  the  class  is  lost  to  us. 
I  beheve  in  the  farmer  preachers.  They  knew  the  Bible 
from  cover  to  cover.  I  wish  we  had  that  class  in  the  country 
to-day  to  preach  to  the  people,  and  I  hope  God  will  send 
down  a  vision  of  his  Spirit  that  will  inspire  these  men  to  go 
forward  and  preach  just  as  they  used  to.  When  the  fashion 
came  on  of  being  educated,  they  made  the  mistake  of  trying 
to  appear  as  the  educated,  and  began  to  read  their  sermons. 
With  these  men  we  could  renew  the  religious  life  of  New 
England." 

Nor  was  this  summer  ministry  suspended  even  in  mid-ocean. 
In  crossing  the  Adantic,  Gordon  invariably  sought  out  the  un- 
privileged and  taught  them.  He  describes  in  a  letter  written  in 
'88  the  meetings  which  he  held  one  Sunday  in  the  crowded, 
fetid  steerage  of  a  Cunarder : 

"  Sunday  afternoon  we  got  permission  to  hold  service 
among  the  steerage  passengers.  They  were  of  all  nationalities 
and  all  creeds,  and  were  not  ready  at  once  to  gather  for  a 
religious  and  Protestant  service.  So  I  went  down  into  the 
hold,  and  preached  to  the  men  and  women  in  their  bunks,  or 
as  they  sat  lounging  and  smoking  on  the  floor.  Though  dis- 
inclined at  first  to  hear,  they  soon  became  attentive,  and  lis- 
tened with  deep  interest  as  I  preached  to  them  of  the  Good 
Shepherd  going  after  the  lost  sheep.  Meanwhile  Mrs.  Gordon 
had  started  singing  on  the  deck  among  the  same  class,  and, 
with  the  help  of  a  few  Christian  friends,  had  held  their  atten- 
tion till  I  came  up  and  preached  to  them  also.  This  service 
was  quietly  listened  to,  though  with  some  interruptions.  When 
I  announced  to  the  people  that '  there  is  none  other  name  under 


184  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

heaven  given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved,'  a 
Catholic  Irishman,  with  just  enough  of  his  national  beverage 
aboard  to  make  him  mellow  and  religious,  stepped  out  and 
crossed  himself  very-  devoutly,  exclaiming,  'That's  so,  your 
riverance!  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Saviour,  and  St.  Peter  is  head 
of  the  church— St.  Peter  whom  he  commanded  to  walk  on 
the  water.  Think  of  that,  my  friends  '—pointing  out  over  the 
waves— 'think  of  St.  Peter  walking  on  the  sea.'  And  so  he 
went  on  in  a  very  noisy  but  friendly  way  to  vindicate  the 
primacy  of  St.  Peter,  the  head  of  the  apostolate,  till  the  crowd 
insisted  that  he  be  quiet  that  the  preacher  might  finish  his 
sermon.  Then  I  proceeded,  luging  the  people  that  they  were 
sinners  in  need  of  pardon,  till  a  socialist,  sitting  on  the  bulk- 
head with  his  pipe  in  his  mouth,  cried  out,  '  Preach  to  Jay 
Gould,  He  is  the  sinner  that  needs  praying  for.'  And  so  he 
gave  us  something  of  a  talk  on  the  tyranny  of  capital  and  the 
oppression  of  labor.  Thus  we  closed,  but  not  without  finding 
warm-hearted  Christians,  Swede  and  Scotch  especially,  and  a 
Welsh  Methodist,  who  led  the  singing  and  became  thereafter 
my  faithful  helper  and  co-laborer  among  his  shipmates.  A 
good  opportunity  is  afforded  on  shipboard  for  giving  the 
gospel  if  we  are  mindful  of  the  Lord's  words,  'As  ye  go, 
preach.'  This  public  introduction  has  given  us  some  oppor- 
tunities for  personal  talks  on  board,  which  we  trust  may  not 
be  without  fruit." 


CHAPTER  XV 

A   CHARACTER    SKETCH 

Personal  appearance — Traits  and  characteristics — Work  among  poor — 

Home  life 

WHAT  we  are  about  to  say  of  Dr.  Gordon's  personal 
character  may  seem  to  those  unacquainted  with  him 
suggestive  of  that  method  of  chronicHng  men's  lives  which 
consists  in  suppressing  or  ignoring  faults  and  in  unduly  mag- 
nifying virtues ;  but  to  those  who  ever  shared  his  companion- 
ship it  will  seem  an  inadequate  estimate  of  a  personality  super- 
lative in  its  sweetness  and  saintliness.  We  cannot  desist  from 
applying  to  him  what  he  once  wrote  of  John  Woolman,  to 
whose  "  Journal "  he  so  frequently  acknowledged  his  indebted- 
ness: 

"  We  dare  not  indorse  the  verdict  of  one  who  has  called 
him  '  the  man  who,  in  all  the  centuries  since  the  advent  of 
Christ,  lived  nearest  to  the  divine  pattern.'  It  is  impossible 
to  give  such  solitary  preeminence  to  any  disciple  of  Christ. 
We  have  called  him,  above  all  whom  we  have  known,  a  dis- 
ciple of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  most  worthy  exemplar  of 
'the  love  of  the  Spirit.'"  Qualities  which  we  look  upon  in 
ourselves  as  attainments  we  think  of  here  as  natural  and  in- 
evitable traits  of  one  who  wore  so  manifestly  the  white  rose 
of  a  pure  life. 

In  personal  appearance  he  was  of  massive  form  and  well 
proportioned.  His  hair  had  turned  early  from  chestnut  to 
silver.  He  seemed  never  to  have  had  any  long  period  of 
middle  life.     The  transition  from  spring  to  fall,  from  youth- 

185 


1 86  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

fulness  to  the  grayness  and  gravity  of  age,  was  direct.  In 
meditation  his  face  appeared  to  some  a  httle  severe ;  in  relax- 
ation none  could  be  more  gracious  and  genial.  In  his  last 
years  the  light  of  heaven  played  about  his  features.  This 
radiancy,  which  was  but  the  symbol  of  the  life  within,  was 
startling  at  times.  On  one  occasion  an  Irish  servant-girl 
opened  the  door  for  him  at  a  house  where  he  was  calling, 
and  on  announcing  him  said  that  she  had  forgotten  his  name, 
but  that  he  certainly  had  the  face  of  an  angel.  This  strange 
spiritual  light  was  neither  the  silver  shimmer  of  the  hair 
nor  the  deep  benignity  of  the  far-shining  pupil,  nor  the  calm 
of  the  features.  It  seemed  to  be  all  these  suffused  with  some- 
thing else  too  subtle  for  description,  something  ethereal,  rare, 
beatific. 

In  his  daily  walk  he  was  beyond  criticism.  "  He  and  his 
sermons  are  one,"  they  were  wont  to  say  of  John  Tauler.  It 
could  be  repeated  here.  "  If  Dr.  Gordon  should  sin,"  said  a 
Boston  minister,  "  I  should  lose  my  faith  in  God."  What 
others  commit  of  the  Scriptures  to  memory  he  committed  to 
practice.  "  We  now  know  what '  the  life  hid  with  Christ '  is," 
said  his  people  of  him.  "  It  has  been  visibly  exemplified 
before  us." 

Neither  could  sins  of  omission  be  well  charged  upon  one 
whose  whole  life  was  spent  in  a  round  of  ceaseless  and  self- 
denying  effort  for  others.  "  The  man  whose  hands  are  full," 
he  would  say,  "  is  generally  found  to  be  the  one  most  efficient 
in  the  service  of  Christ.  The  strings  of  the  viol  must  be  taut 
in  order  that  they  may  be  fitted  to  make  music.  So  our 
energies  must  be  keyed  to  a  pitch  of  activity  to  make  us 
efficient    Christians."      His    dihgence    was    extraordinary.* 

*  His  letters  indicate  this  throughout.  In  the  first  of  the  three  follow- 
ing extracts  he  refers  to  his  labors  on  Monday,  usually  thought  to  be  the 
minister's  rest-day  after  the  strain  of  the  Sabbath : 

"  I  have  just  returned  from  my  fifth  service  to-day.     Ten  o'clock  at  the 


A    CHARACTER   SKETCH  iS? 

Seven  days  each  week  were  as  full  as  continuous  demands  on 
his  time  could  make  them.  He  never  refused  to  speak  at  a 
meeting  or  to  act  on  a  committee  where  it  was  possible  for 
him  to  do  so  without  conflict  with  other  engagements.  His 
door-bell,  which  he  called  "  almost  the  greatest  trial  of  my 
life,"  rang  from  morning  till  night,  announcing  applicants  for 
advice  or  sympathy  or  pecuniary  help.  We  get  a  suggestion 
of  its  dihgent  jinghng  in  the  following  note,  which  describes 
his  return  from  a  summer  vacation  and  the  swarm  of  callers 
who  waylaid  him  on  his  first  appearance : 

"  We  reached  Boston  safely  and  speedily,  and  were  home 
at  2  P.M.     A  royal  welcome  awaited  us— all  my  cHents  and 

dependents  having  scented  my  coming  from  afar.     Dr.  A 

was  at  the  house  awaiting  me  to  consult  about  the  interests  of 
China,  and  that  great  empire  with  a  third  of  the  human  race 
was  considered  and  its  vast  interests  disposed  of  in  twenty 

minutes.     Then  D came  in  to  grapple  with  the  affairs 

of  the  training-school  and  its  more  than  a  dozen  applicants 
waiting  to  be  attended  to.  While  I  was  in  consultation  with 
him  a  young  Scotchman  came  for  help  and  counsel.  Having 
spent  his  '  little  all '  in  search  for  employment,  and  being  now 
penniless,  he  had  heard  of  me,  and  had  been  anxiously  look- 
ing for  my  arrival  as  the  one  ray  of  light  in  his  dark  prospect. 

Congregational  ministers'  meeting,  address  on  the  Sunday  question ; 
3  P.M.,  Executive  Committee  meeting  at  Tremont  Temple ;  4  P.M.,  Bethel 
Board;  7:30,  Standing  Committee  meeting  at  the  church;  8:30,  Sunday- 
school  Union  meeting  at  the  church.  Ought  not  one  to  get  tired  out  and 
talked  out.!*  But  I  came  home  full  of  joy.  Four  came  before  us  for  bap- 
tism—  and  such  conversions  as  I  have  rarely  seen." 

"  I  am  wanted  at  two  places  this  evening,  both  important,  for  '  no 
license'  and  for  'church  extension.'  Am  on  the  fence  as  to  which  to 
choose." 

"...  Oh  that  I  were  three  and  could  make  for  myself  three  taber- 
nacles of  usefulness  —  one  for  Boston,  one  for  Raleigh,  and  one  for  the 
Missionary  Union  urging  me  to  go  to  Pittsburg  next  week!" 


1 88  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

While  talking  with  him  another  edged  his  way  into  the  parlor 
wearing  that  peculiar  look  of  sanctimonious  sheepishness 
which  I  can  never  certainly  interpret  whether  the  bearer  waits 
to  profess  rehgion  or  to  get  married.  In  this  case  it  was  the 
latter,  and  the  transaction  awaits  completion.  It  was  nearly 
dark  before  I  got  through  with  these,  and  I  had  sat  down  for 
a  hurried  meditation  on  my  Sunday's  sermon  when  the  bell 
rang,  and  I  found  a  man  panting  for  breath  on  the  front  steps, 
so  exhausted  that  he  could  not  get  his  wind  sufficiently  to 
articulate  for  some  minutes.  I  recognized  him  as  an  old 
offender  of  twelve  years'  standing,  but  I  did  not  on  that  ac- 
count shut  up  my  bowels  of  compassion  against  him.  A  tall, 
lank,  long-haired  man  with  a  bundle  of  documents  under  his 
arm  was  the  next.  He  wanted  me  to  assist  in  calling  a  great 
meeting  to  expose  the  iniquities  of  Freemasonry,  and  made 
my  blood  curdle  by  reciting  the  formula  of  initiation  used  in 
this  order.     Well,  you  see  I  had  a  royal  greeting  home." 

His  patience  was,  from  a  psychological  point  of  view,  mar- 
velous. Such  constant  intrusions,  such  various  and  frequent  in- 
terruptions, such  unremitting  labor,  such  continuous  expen- 
diture of  vitality,  would  have  kept  most  men  in  a  chronic 
condition  of  nervous  irritability.  Yet  no  one  ever  reported  a 
single  outbreak  of  petulance,  a  single  expression  of  impatience, 
in  his  whole  career.  His  heart  kept  a  "high,  calm,  spheric 
frame,"  undisturbed  by  the  exasperating  incidents  which  beset 
every  one  who  has  to  deal  largely  with  the  helpless,  the 
broken,  and  the  weak.  For  it  could  be  said  of  him,  as  Eras- 
mus said  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  that  he  was  "patron-general 
to  all  poor  devils."  "Let  scientific  charity  look  after  the 
worthy  poor,"  he  used  often  to  say  ;  "  my  mission  is  to  the  un- 
worthy." And  it  must  be  said,  in  justice  to  him,  that  he 
had  a  fairly  representative  and  numerous  constituency  of  this 
class.  He  would  laughingly  speak  of  the  two  tramps,  whom 
he  overheard  one  evening  when  walking  along  a  neighboring 


A    CHARACTER   SKETCH  189 

street,  one  of  whom  sententiously  remarked,  "  It's  wan  eighty- 
two  "  (the  number  of  Dr.  Gordon's  house) ;  and  again  of  a 
half-intoxicated  wastrel  who  inquired  of  him  while  passing 
"  where  the  institooshun  on  Brookhne  Street "  was,  referring 
also  to  his  home.  Yet  these  personifications  of  poverty  and 
sin  who  came  to  his  lower  porch  for  charity  were  treated  with 
an  unfailing  courtesy  and  tenderness.  "  '  Remember  them  that 
are  in  bonds,  as  bound  with  them,'  "  he  was  wont  to  say.  "  If 
you  are  temperate  and  prosperous  and  fortunate,  you  are 
called  upon  to  share  the  sorrows  of  the  drunkard's  wife  and 
the  trial  of  the  widow's  poverty  and  the  pain  of  the  sick  man's 
couch.  As  bound  with  them!  '  I  don't  sign  my  name  to  any 
man's  bond,'  says  a  shrewd  business  man.  In  business  that 
may  be  a  right  principle,  but  in  religion  we  are  called  on  to 
be  bondsmen  for  any  poor,  suffering  brother  who  asks  it  of 
us.  If  sickness  has  put  a  mortgage  on  his  body,  or  poverty 
has  fixed  an  attachment  on  his  goods,  the  Bible  tells  us  we  must 
consent  to  be  bound  with  him." 

That  he  lived  up  to  this  high  standard  the  day  of  his  funeral 
attested.  He  doubtless  knew  many  a  face  in  the  throng  of 
poor  that  passed  his  coffin  that  morning,  though  they  were 
strangers  to  all  others.  "  Dr.  Gordon's  study,"  writes  a  well- 
known  pastor,*  "  was  in  the  back  of  the  church,  in  the  second 
story,  directly  over  the  rear  entrance.  Wishing  to  see  him 
one  day,  I  shook  and  rattled  the  door.  The  window  of  the 
study  slowly  opened,  his  face  appeared,  and  when  I  told  him 
what  I  wanted,  he  took  his  key  from  his  pocket  and  tossed  it 
down  with  the  words,  '  Come  up.'  He  lived  above  the  rest 
of  us,  but  was  always  ready  to  share  the  heights  with  any  who 
wished,  and  tossed  the  key  to  his  secrets  to  any  who  sought 
them.  He  always  worked  with  door  open  for  all  who  cared 
enough  for  him  and  his  to  seek,  knock,  and  climb.  A  thou- 
sand might  pass  the  silent  study  on  the  noisy  street  and  give 
*  Rev.  O.  P.  Gifford,  D.D. 


19°  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

no  thought  to  him,  but  whenever  a  man  wanted  what  he  had, 
the  want  was  met  as  soon  as  help  was  sought.  No  book  in 
his  library  was  too  good  to  be  loaned,  no  experience  too  deep 
to  be  shared,  no  hour  too  busy  to  be  yielded  to  the  life  in  need. 
With  the  upward  look  and  the  upper  room  he  partook  with 
the  apostles  of  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit,  and  sought  to  make 
practical  application  of  the  truth  to  life." 

His  unwearied  patience  in  committees,  where  contending 
opinions  pulled  and  tugged  like  the  four  horses  in  Plato's 
fable,  was  often  remarked.  The  most  outrageous  filibustering 
never  ruffled  his  pellucid  temper.  The  same  evenness  and 
control  were  conspicuous  in  his  letters.  Nothing  could  be 
more  vexing  than  the  assm-ance  with  which  problems  in 
eschatology,  so  easy  to  propound,  so  impossible  to  solve,  were 
put  before  him  by  unknown  correspondents  in  Iowa  or  in 
Texas,  as  if  he  were  a  new  oracle  holding  in  his  breast  the 
secrets  of  the  age  to  come.  These  he  would  answer  as  best 
he  could  in  his  slow,  cramped,  peculiar  handwriting.  Some- 
times, of  course,  such  answers  were  necessarily  concise.  At 
one  time  he  wrote  a  mere  outHne  of  his  view,  and  added,  in 
closing,  his  regrets  that  he  had  then  no  time  to  amplify.  He 
received  a  reply  some  months  later  in  which  the  writer  re- 
marked, "  It  is  certainly  fortunate  for  me  that  your  time  was 
so  hmited.  I  have  already  spent  nine  weeks  in  attempting 
to  decipher  the  handwriting  of  your  note,  and  am  not  nearly 
done  yet!"  His  correspondence  was  extensive,  and,  like 
Molinos,  he  directed  by  this  means  the  spiritual  life  of  a  widely 
distributed  circle  of  Christians. 

The  same  trait  of  patient  considerateness  was  prominent  in 
his  estimate  of  others,  especially  of  those  with  whom  he  dis- 
agreed. "We  believe  we  ought  to  contend  earnestly  for 
the  faith  once  deHvered  to  the  saints,"  he  once  said,  "  but  in 
doing  this  we  should  seek  to  be  like  the  saints  once  delivered  to 
the  faith. ^*    He  always  aimed  to  keep  experimental  religion  to 


A    CHARACTER   SKETCH  IQI 

the  front  and  the  conflicting  theories  of  behef  in  the  back- 
ground. "Theology  begets  strife;  salvation  genders  unity. 
The  saints  fight  over  doctrine ;  they  weep  together  over  sin- 
ners." In  his  utterances  no  man  was  ever  more  circumspect. 
His  tongue  was  as  completely  subject  to  his  will  as  ever 
Hebrew  slave  to  Egyptian  taskmaster.  Exaggerations,  harsh 
comments,  misinterpretations,  caricatures,  distortions,  rash  or 
thoughtless  statements,  never  fell  from  his  lips.  He  never 
had,  therefore,  to  retreat  from  the  positions  which  his  words 
had  chosen  and  fortified. 

Criticism  and  opposition  he  endured  without  recrimination. 
"A  Christian,"  he  says,  "should  be  a  patient,  undaunted, 
undiscouraged  torch-bearer  for  Christ.  If  a  storm  of  abuse 
should  chance  to  break  upon  him,  he  is  to  stand  in  statue-like 
indifference  to  it  all,  holding  forth  the  Word  of  life.  If 
blasts  of  ridicule  dash  him  in  the  face,  he  is  to  take  it  as 
silently  and  as  imperturbably  as  the  bronze  figure  takes  the 
tempest.  It  is  the  man  who  stands  that  moves  the  world." 
And  again,  "The  opprobrium  of  truth  identifies  us  with 
Christ  in  the  tenderest  and  closest  sense.  It  was  not,  surely, 
greediness  for  contempt  which  led  Paul  to  glory  in  the  cross 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  By  it,  he  tells  us,  he  was  crucified 
unto  the  world,  and  the  world  unto  him.  That  which  cut  him 
off  from  men  joined  him  the  more  closely  to  the  Lord ;  that 
which  oppressed  him  from  the  human  side  liberated  him  to- 
ward the  divine."  Yet  this  meekness  was  "  never  to  the 
abatement  of  firmness  in  maintaining  principle.  His  upright- 
ness was  inflexible,  and  when  need  arose  intrepid.  The  hand 
that  could  carry  the  grapes  of  Eshcol  with  a  touch  so  delicate 
as  not  to  disturb  their  bloom  could,  when  occasion  demanded, 
seize  the  sword  of  the  Lord  and  hew  Agag  to  pieces  before 
him."  *  The  unpopularity  of  a  doctrine  had  nothing  to  do 
with  his  adhesion  thereto.     For  him  there  was  but  one  test — 

*  Dr.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  article  in  "  Missionary  Review,"  April,  1895. 


192  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  will  of  Jesus  Christ.  His  obedience  to  God  was  as  un- 
questioning as  that  of  the  legionaries  to  Caesar.  Much  as  he 
disliked  controversy,  the  imminent  probability  of  trouble  never 
tempted  him  to  curtail  or  conceal  the  least  essential  of  his 
convictions.  "  Better  the  church  mihtant  battling  for  the 
truth  than  the  church  complaisant  sun-endering  the  truth  for 
the  sake  of  peace.  The  Prince  of  Peace  is  a  man  of  war. 
Let  us  be  less  afraid  of  contention  for  the  truth  than  of  com- 
munion with  error." 

In  nothing,  indeed,  was  he  greater  than  in  that  rare  grace, 
humihty.  "The  way  to  see  the  divine  light,"  says  an  old 
proverb,  "is  to  put  out  thine  own  candle."  Simeon  Stylites 
was  not  more  sensible  of  his  unworthiness.  Unhke  him,  how- 
ever, Gordon  never,  by  dwelling  on  his  unworthiness,  betrayed 
a  consciousness  of  this  humility.  He  quietly  implied  it  by 
giving  to  others  the  precedence  at  all  times.  "  Who  of  us  is, 
after  all,  worthy,  Mr.  Roberts?  "  he  once  said  to  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  Industrial  Home,  when  interceding  for  some 
vagabond  who  had  forfeited  all  claims  on  charity  by  his  in- 
gratitude and  dishonesty.     And  at  another  time  he  writes : 

"As  to  the  absence  of  my  kindred  from  church — well,  I 
am  sorry.  How  easy  it  is  to  backslide!  I  feel  this  myself, 
and  wonder  what  I  should  be  without  the  stimulus  of  helpful 
circumstances." 

And  again,  writing  from  Northfield  to  his  wife : 

"  How  wonderful  it  all  is  that  I,  so  little  time  ago  washing 
wool  and  tending  the  cards  in  the  place  where  you  are,  should 
be  here  in  this  mount  of  privilege,  with  such  honor  put  upon 
me  as  teacher  and  co-laborer  with  the  greatest  and  best!  To 
God  be  all  the  glory.  How  little  could  I  have  foreseen  all 
this!      How  little  could  I  have  brought  it  about!" 

In  a  letter  written  to  a  friend  in  London  soon  after  his  re- 
turn in  '88,  we  find  this  striking  sentence,  "  Redemption  fi-om 
beginning  to  end  is  a  problem  in  loss  and  gain,  in  which — 


A    CHARACTER   SKETCH  193 

Strange  paradox! — the  magnitude  of  our  gain  is  determined 
by  the  multitude  of  our  losses.  The  highest  bidder  for  the 
crown  of  glory  is  the  lowliest  bearer  of  the  cross  of  self-denial." 
These  maxims  were  adopted  as  a  working  program  for  his 
daily  life.  Self-renunciation  became  to  him  the  primary  law 
of  conduct.  In  the  larger  and  more  noteworthy  sacrifices  of 
life  this  rule  is  often  not  so  exacting  as  might  at  first  appear. 
Signing  checks  for  good  causes,  registering  one's  name  in  sub- 
scription lists,  discommoding  one's  self  for  good  friends — there 
are  in  all  these  hidden  but  recognizable  compensations  which 
return  to  us  like  those  indemnifying  benefits  which  politicians 
claim  to  find  in  indirect  taxes.  It  is  a  joy  to  be  the  "  servant 
of  the  servants  of  God."  There  is  a  perceptibly  suffusing 
pleasure  even  in  stripping  off  one's  coat  and  handing  it  to  the 
beggar,  as  St.  Martin  did,  provided  the  act  is  noted  by  observ- 
ing eyes.  But  the  real,  the  crucial  test  comes  in  the  httle 
crucifixions,  the  unnoticed  and  apparently  insignificant  self- 
denials.  It  is  hard  to  be  the  servant  of  the  ungrateful  and 
the  unworthy.  It  is  hard  to  pay  the  direct,  the  summary 
assessments  on  one's  convenience  and  leisure.  To  ride  late 
in  dreary  cars  that  some  httle  county  conference  may  have 
the  inspiration  of  your  thought  and  the  impulse  of  your  words  ; 
to  intervene  in  behalf  of  unpopular  causes  when,  if  your  friends 
are  not  scandalized,  they  are  at  least  silent ;  to  resign  the 
brief  moment  of  rest  at  the  fireside,  putting  on  coat  and  hat 
and  going  out  into  the  cold,  that  some  man  may  have  his  bed 
or  some  woman  her  groceries— in  short,  to  stand  ready  to  be 
spent  to  the  last  fragment  of  personal  comfort,  to  empty  one's 
pockets  of  all  the  small  change  of  unoccupied  time,  this  indeed 
is  the  trial  of  one's  unselfishness.  It  was  in  these  ungrudging 
services  that  the  rarer  and  more  superlative  excellences  of  Dr. 
(Gordon's  character  were  most  conspicuous.  Bonhomie  and 
kind-heartedness  he  had  in  no  limited  measure ;  but  far  be- 
yond this  was  the  high  genius  for  self-abnegation. 


194  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

As  with  Luther,  love  of  music  was  one  of  his  most  striking 
characteristics.  Though  without  a  musician's  training,  he 
edited  with  pecuhar  discrimination  two  hymn-books,  and  wrote 
admirable  and  much-used  tunes  for  fifteen  or  more  hymns. 

Hymnology  was,  indeed,  his  only  diversion,  a  spring  of  re- 
freshment and  a  means  of  relaxation  after  tension,  as  fiction  is 
to  most  men.  Matching  in  spare  moments  old  hymns  to  new 
tunes,  writing  either  hymns  or  tunes  as  the  case  required, 
humming  into  being  new  melodies  as  he  went  to  sleep,  singing 
the  old  ones  with  his  family  till  all  throats  were  hoarse  and  all 
lungs  weary  save  his  own — here  was  his  unfailing  resource. 
And  so  responsive  was  he  to  music  that  a  few  chords  would 
often  suffice  to  bring  him  downstairs  to  the  side  of  the  piano, 
as  if  an  invisible,  yet  no  less  potent,  spell  were  working. 

His  setting  of  the  well-known  words,  "  My  Jesus,  I  Love 
Thee,"  is  familiar  wherever  hymns  are  sung  by  men  and 
women  of  the  English  tongue.  It  was  sung  by  thousands  in 
jerseys  and  bonnets  on  that  sad  day  when  the  mother  of  the 
Salvation  Army  was  laid  away  to  rest.  Many  have  been  the 
interesting  ncidents  connected  with  it.  On  one  occasion  in 
New  York,  after  some  great  meeting,  he  was  met  by  a  hand- 
some and  stately  young  woman  who  had  been  a  singer  of  dis- 
tinction in  opera.  Disillusioned  of  a  career  of  excitement, 
.sick  at  heart  of  the  pride  of  life,  filled  with  yearning  for  she 
hardly  knew  what,  she  had  sat  down  at  the  piano  in  the  recep- 
tion-room of  the  hotel  where  she  was  staying,  and  opening 
haphazard  a  hymnal  which  lay  on  the  rack,  had  played  the 
first  number  she  turned  to.  It  was  "  My  Jesus,  I  Love  Thee." 
She  sang  verse  after  verse.  Before  she  had  finished  she  had 
gone  through  the  whole  experience — tears,  repentance,  for- 
giveness, peace!  For  more  than  a  year,  now,  she  had  given 
herself  to  humble  mission  work  in  the  metropolis. 

At  another  time,  after  he  had  spoken  at  a  large  meeting 
in  a  Canadian  city,  at  which  the  provost  of  the  town  presided, 


A    CHARACTER   SKETCH  195 

this  hymn  was  given  out.  It  was  sung  with  great  power  and 
fervor  by  the  congregation.  Happening  to  look  at  the  chair- 
man, he  was  surprised  to  see  him  giving  way  to  emotions  of 
uncontrollable  grief.  After  the  services  were  over  he  went 
with  him  to  his  home.  In  the  quiet  of  his  library  he  told 
Gordon  how  his  only  son  had  passed  away  some  weeks  before 
in  his  arms  singing  the  same  blessed  hymn. 

Like  Luther,  too,  he  was,  above  all,  fond  of  children. 
None  knew  better  than  his  own  with  what  tenderness  he  could 
share  their  sorrows,  with  what  almost  vicarious  willingness  he 
hurried  to  take  upon  himself  their  difficulties  and  their  trials. 
A  note  to  a  little  five-year-old  nephew,  printed  in  roman 
letters  and  capitally  illustrated,  which  lies  before  us  is  worthy 
to  be  placed  alongside  the  great  Reformer's  singularly  beautiful 
letter  to  his  boy  Hans.  No  one  ever  had  a  surer  entrance 
into  children's  hearts.  No  one  ever  better  knew  what  to  say 
to  them  on  all  occasions.  His  addresses  to  the  children  of 
the  church — so  simple,  so  transparent,  so  charming — were  the 
wonder  of  all.  But  those  who  knew  him  in  his  home  relations 
understood  the  secret  of  their  charm.  It  sprang  from  an 
acquaintance  with  child  character  which  results  only  from 
long  companionship  and  sympathy. 

As  a  teller  of  marvelous  tales  he  had  few  equals.  What 
multiplex  incident!  What  extraordinary  involutions!  What 
unexpected  denouements!  His  art  was  that  of  the  magician 
who  draws  yard  upon  yard  of  ribbon  from  his  mouth.  For 
these  stories  were  nigh  endless,  and  ran  night  after  night,  like 
the  plays  in  Chinese  theaters.  That  of  "  Guggles  "—the  name 
is  sufficiently  suggestive  of  its  droll  character— was  perhaps 
his  masterpiece.  His  elaborate  improvisations  on  themes 
drawn  from  Grimm  ran  a  close  second.  Never  was  he  happier 
than  in  the  nursery  with  a  lapful  of  babies  hypnotized  by  his 
thrilling  incidents  and  vivid  descriptions.  "Tell  Theodora 
how  constantly  I  think  of  her,  and  that  I  am  getting  some 


196  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

five-story  stories  to  tell  her  at  bedtime  when  I  get  home,"  he 
writes  from  Canada  in  the  midst  of  an  arduous  missionary 
campaign. 

His  drawings,  too,  were  always  in  great  requisition.  With 
that  irresistible  power  of  enchantment  which  seemed  to  dwell 
in  the  stub  of  his  pencil  he  summoned  them  forth  from  the 
paper — rows  of  sleepy  listeners  in  church,  files  of  bald-pated 
deacons,  groups  of  fantastic  faces  suggestive,  in  their  physiog- 
nomic eccentricities,  of  the  innumerable  oddities  who  turned 
up  weekly  at  his  home  with  bizarre  theories  and  quaint  ex- 
planations of  prophecy.  I  have  since  thought,  in  calling  to 
mind  these  sketches,  that  while  he  sat  patiently  drawing  for  a 
group  of  interested  heads  about  him,  he  was  all  the  time  en- 
joying a  mild  revenge  in  these  caricatures,  and  that  inwardly 
there  was  much  quiet  satisfaction  over  the  distorted  noses  and 
undisciplined  hair. 

One  of  his  specialties  in  the  pictorial  line  had  to  do  with 
the  escapades  and  activities  of  a  little  brownie  folk  made  of 
straight  lines  and  minute  capital  circles.  The  battles  of  these 
linear  people,  their  winter  sports  and  summer  rambles,  their 
household  mishaps,  their  ludicrous  employments,  constituted  a 
perpetual  vaudeville  of  nonsense  for  children  and  grand- 
children. 

Furthermore,  he  possessed— oh,  rare  delight  of  youngsters! 
— an  almost  Helvetic  skill  in  wood-carving.  To  recount  the 
various  amusing  and  play-provoking  things  which  his  deft 
fingers  whittled  out  would  be  to  give  an  inventory  of  the 
contents  of  a  well-stocked  toy-shop.  Miniature  farming  tools, 
houses,  barns,  churches,  animals,  were  released  one  by  one 
from  the  enveloping  thraldom  of  a  pine  block  by  his  emanci- 
pating penknife,  as  Ariel  was  released  from  the  riven  oak. 
Besides  this,  he  would  make  watering-carts  out  of  tomato  cans 
mounted  on  wheels,  transparencies  for  campaign  purposes  out 
of  old  soap-boxes,  and  "keroogians,"  an  invention  of  his  own— 


A    CHARACTER   SKETCH  197 

bits  of  glass  of  various  lengths  strung  on  strings,  and  arranged 
in  the  order  of  the  notes  of  the  scale— on  which  he  would 
play  long  "  kinder  symphonies,"  to  the  infinite  amusement  of 
litde  folks. 

This  ingenuity  was  apparent  even  in  the  discipline  of  chil- 
dren. Who  ever  used  his  gift  of  imagination  more  cleverly 
in  the  unwelcome  task  of  getting  an  appetiteless  three-year- 
old  to  eat?  This  is  how  he  managed.  Froebel  himself  could 
not  have  done  better : 

"  Theodora  is  well  and  happy.  She  does  not  eat  any  better 
than  ever,  but  Elsie  and  I  manage  that.  To-day  the  milk- 
cup  was  a  steam  fire-engine  and  her  mouth  the  tenement 
where  the  conflagration  was  raging.  I  rang  the  table-bell  vio- 
lently, and  as  the  engine  rushed  down  the  street  she  allowed  the 
fire  to  be  put  out  to  the  extent  of  a  cupful  of  milk  poured  in." 

A  letter  or  two  will  illustrate  these  traits.  In  the  first  the 
Congo  Mission  and  his  last  baby  occupy  him  alternately.  In  the 
last  his  children  in  New  Hampton  are  sent  some  timely  advice. 

"  My  constant  thought  has  been  of  you,  mother  and  child, 
ladora  *  and  Theodora.  Everybody  I  met,  whether  from  the 
far  West  or  frozen  North,  congratulated  me  and  inquired  for 
you  both.  I  have  really  hardly  waked  up  to  the  event  that 
has  taken  place  in  our  home  as  viewed  by  the  great  public, 
and  wonder  now  that  I  have  been  so  reserved  and  so  self- 
contained.  I  knew,  or  thought  I  knew,  that  we  had  a  well- 
spring  of  joy  in  our  house,  but  how  far  the  streams  thereof 
had  flowed  to  make  glad  the  great  Baptist  constituency,  I  had 
not  taken  in  till,  by  the  warm  grasp  of  the  hand  from  scores 
at  every  station  crowding  round  to  do  us  honor,  I  was  made 
fully  aware  of  it.  All  seemed  to  have  known  it  whom  I  met 
on  the  train — that  is,  that  another  ohve  plant  had  sprouted 
about  my  table — and  even  the  hackmen,  as  I  stepped  out 
from  the  cars  at  various  points  along  the  line,  nudged  and 
*  "  I  adore  her,"  of  course. 


igS  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

winked  at  each  other,  whispering  I  know  not  what  except, 
'  That  is  the  proud  parson.'  .  .   . 

"  Theodora  still  continues  to  be  the  brightest  star  in  the 
Milky  Way.     Give  the  little  dairymaid  my  best   wishes  for 

success  in  her  earhest  occupation.   .  .  .   Mr.    H 's  son 

came  in  for  a  little  time  in  the  evening,  and  sat,  with  cigar  in 
hand,  and  sometimes  in  mouth,  talking  of  the  virtues  of  his 
dead  father  and  of  his  prospective  departure  for  the  beach  to 
spend  the  summer.  And  I  thought  of  that  good  father's  pro- 
found interest  in  the  Congo  Mission,  and  wondered  why  he 
did  not  leave  his  fortune  to  that  work  instead  of  endowing 
one  solitary  son  to  smoke  and  saunter  at  summer  resorts.  I 
hope  our  children  may  be  endued,  but  not  endowed,  especially 
Theodora  now  pasturing  in  the  land  of  milk  and  honey.  May 
she  get  strength  and  sustenance  therefrom  to  bless  the  world. 
I  believe  your  own  temperate  hving  and  temperance  lecturing 
will  bear  rich  fruit  in  children  and  children's  children.  May 
it  prove  so  especially  with  Theodora.  May  she  be  a  living 
stone  polished  after  the  simihtude  of  a  palace.  On  the  cars 
the  prospects  of  the  Congo  Mission  were  much  talked  of  by  all 
whom  I  met.  Generally  the  voice  was  favorable  and  the 
sentiments  strong.  I  am  in  for  it,  and  am  bound  to  organize 
a  new  society  to  carry  it  on  unless  justice  is  done  it.  With 
myself  for  president,  and  you  for  collector,  and  Arthur  and 
Helen  for  home  and  foreign  secretaries,  we  could  do  it.  Haley, 
Ernest,  Elsie,  and  Theodora  will  of  course  be  on  the  executive 
committee.  The  last,  I  am  sure,  under  the  tuition  of  her  pres- 
ent appetite,  would  be  ready  to  vote  for  large  supplies.  I 
sincerely  trust  that  the  little  maiden  may  be  delivered  from 
colic,  and  that  the  winds  in  her  little  cave  of  ^olus  may  be 
laid  and  kept  at  rest.  I  speak,  of  course,  paregorically.  Now 
may  the  God  of  peace  be  with  you  all,  protecting,  keeping, 
guarding  you.  May  he  cause  all  grace  to  abound  in  you  al- 
ways." 


A    CHARACTER  SR'ETCH  I99 

"  Dear  Children  :  How  I  envy  you  the  joy  of  being 
together  in  that  lovely  retreat.  Now  I  send  you  my  list  of 
cautions  and  instructions.     They  are  as  follows : 

"  I.  Give  ample  time  for  prayers  each  morning.  Examina- 
tions are  over,  and  there  need  be  no  hurrying  off  now.  Sing 
a  hymn  and  take  turns  in  leading. 

"  2.  Do  not  rush  too  rapidly  into  farm  work,  but  begin  very 
slowly  till  you  get  inured  to  it,  and  look  out  for  sunstroke. 

"  3.   Have  a  good  solid  three  hours  of  reading  aloud. 

"  4.  Don't  run  any  risk  in  going  into  the  river.  Go  together 
if  at  all,  and  watch  over  each  other, 

"  5.  Look  out  for  the  horse.  "Ide  rov  t-nnov.  Go  slow  with 
him  till  you  find  out  his  temper. 

"  Pray  for  us  that  the  Word  of  the  Lord  may  abound 
through  us." 

It  was  in  his  boyhood  home  that  the  geniality  of  his  dispo- 
sition came  out  most  clearly.  Relieved  for  a  few  weeks  from 
the  innumerable  cares  of  pastoral  life  in  the  city,  his  spirits  took 
on  fresh  sparkle  and  animation  in  the  quiet  and  tender  air  of 
the  New  Hampshire  country.  With  what  enthusiasm  did  he 
enter  into  the  simple  rustic  joys!  What  dehght  did  he  take 
in  rambling  over  the  rough  pastures  with  his  children  for  blue- 
berries, in  organizing  excursions  to  far-away  hilltops  and  to 
distant  lakes,  in  riding  homeward  at  dusk  singing  the  evening 
hymns  of  Lyte  and  Keble,  while  the  glow  was  still  living  in  the 
west  and  the  whippoorwills  were  beginning  their  chant  in  the 
hollows!  In  later  life  these  intervals  of  rest  and  recreation 
steadily  narrowed  as  the  calls  for  service  became  more  frequent 
and  more  urgent.  Summer  conventions  broke  into  small  frag- 
ments the  short  furloughs,  while  an  enormous  correspondence, 
the  ceaseless  rolls  of  printers'  proof,  and  the  continuous  intru- 
sion of  the  outer  world  gave  to  what  was  left  the  uneasy  hur- 
ried character  of  a  half-hohday.    Yet,  brief  as  they  were,  these 


2O0  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  CORDON' 

days  were  the  regenerating  tonic  which,  in  anticipation,  in 
retrospect,  and  in  immediate  enjoyment,  strengthened  him  to 
accomplish  the  tasks  of  thirty  years. 

"  The  happiest  and  most  exalted  moments  I  have  ever  known 
in  this  life,"  he  writes,  "  are  those  when  I  stand  on  some  high 
outlook  of  my  New  Hampshire  home,  and  gaze  off  upon  the 
blue  hills  in  the  distance,  and  see  those  hills  rising  range  upon 
range,  as  though  they  were  the  very  portals  of  Beulah  land. 
There  is  something  indescribable  in  these  mountain-top  experi- 
ences, and  they  never  fail  to  lift  me  out  of  myself  and  bring 
me  nearer  to  God.  I  shall  see  the  King  in  his  beauty,  and 
the  land  of  far  distances.  ...  I  have  just  revisited  many 
scenes  of  my  early  walks  in  this  so  familiar  place.  I  remember 
a  tree  where  I  used  to  go  as  a  boy  to  pray.  Only  the  stump 
of  it  remains ;  but  I  could  call  it  to  witness,  while  kneeling 
there,  that  God  had  done  exceeding  abundantly  above  all 
that  I  thought  or  asked.  What  a  change!  Who  could  have 
dreamed  it!" 

In  New  Hampton  the  abstracted  look  disappeared,  the  tense 
determination  of  spirit  relaxed.  The  mental  pictures  clustering 
about  him  here  are  so  different  from  those  of  the  city  life  as 
almost  to  suggest  a  double  personality.  One  remembers  him 
reading,  with  rich  intonation,  "  High  Tide  on  the  Coast  of 
Lincolnshire  "  to  his  sick  child,  while  the  butterflies  came  in 
the  windows  and  the  leaves  rippled  in  the  breeze  ;  or  standing, 
watch  in  hand,  in  the  perspective  of  the  long  bridge  over  the 
Pemigewasset,  timing  his  little  sons  as  they  raced  to  the  other 
side  after  their  evening's  bath  in  the  river.  In  later  years  we 
see  him  chmbing  a  hill  path,  a  St.  Christopher  of  the  mountain- 
side, with  his  eldest  grandson  astride  his  shoulders  and  grasp- 
ing that  transiigured  forehead ;  or,  again,  driving  a  rackful  of 
city  children  to  the  village,  complacently  silent  amid  the  clatter 
of  tongues  and  the  shrill  singing  of  gospel  hymns. 

The  coming  of  these  children  to  New  Hampton  was  during 


A    CHARACTER   SKETCH  20i 

many  years  a  feature  of  his  vacations.  He  was  not  content  to 
enjoy  in  selfish  meditation,  far  from  the  sorrow  and  poverty 
behind  him,  the  sweet  influences  of  the  summer  hills,  the  quiet 
companionship  of  nature.  There  were  white  faces  and  puny 
frames  which  needed  the  regenerating  touch  of  mountain  air. 
There  were  tired  mothers  to  whom  a  change  of  surroundings 
and  work  would  mean  a  renewed  lease  of  Hfe.  How  could  he 
leave  such  in  the  straitened  warrens  of  the  city  while  he 
himself  was  drinking  in  the  air  of  enlarged  landscapes  and  of 
distant  vistas?  So  for  a  dozen  years  or  more  he  had  with  him, 
in  an  unoccupied  farm-house  not  far  from  his  own  home,  from 
fifteen  to  twenty-five  poor  children.  And  as  to  expense? 
Well,  this  was  how  it  was  met.  From  his  own  purse  he  con- 
tributed much ;  friends  in  the  home  church  helped  further ;  but 
for  their  immediate  support  vegetables,  supplies,  and  cooked 
food  were  sent  in  by  farmers  from  the  neighboring  districts  in 
response  to  the  requests  which  he  always  made  from  the  pulpit 
of  the  village  church.  "  I  have  ministered  unto  you  in  spirit- 
ual things,"  he  would  say  ;  "  minister  ye  to  the  temporal  neces- 
sities of  these  httle  ones."  And  so  even  the  vacations  were 
unreservedly  given  over  to  good  works.  The  local  church  re- 
ceived a  vitalizing  impulse  on  Sundays  from  one  deep  taught  in 
the  Word  and  ever  ready  to  communicate,  and  the  impulse 
realized  itself  practically  in  a  tender  and  helpful  charity.  What 
a  dehght  these  children  were  to  him!  What  a  fatherly  interest 
he  took  in  them  all!  On  one  occasion,  when  a  little  girl  was 
sent  up  unexpectedly,  and  no  place  could  be  found  for  her  to 
sleep,  he  went  to  work  with  hammer  and  saw  and  scantling 
and  built  a  bed  for  her,  hardly  finishing  it  before  night  arrived. 
The  last  summer  of  his  life  was  unusually  successful  in  this 
direction.     In  a  letter  to  his  wife  he  writes : 

"  To-day  there  was  a  lawn  picnic  for  the  children  on  the 
farm.  Many  of  the  townspeople  turned  out,  and  the  children 
appeared  beautifully.     The  kindness  of  the  people  has  been 


io2  ADONIRAM  JVDSON  GORDON 

superabundant ;  more  than  could  be  eaten  has  been  supplied. 
I  thanked  them  publicly.  The  Dana  Meeting-house  people 
feel  defrauded  that  they  have  had  so  little  hand  in  the  business. 
I  promised  them  a  chance  next  year." 

And  again : 

"  I  felt  this  afternoon  that  a  sight  of  the  joy  of  the  children 
on  the  farm,  as  they  ran  to  meet  me,  was  more  than  a  compen- 
sation for  all  the  trouble  they  have  made  you  and  the  rest. 
It  is  an  unspeakable  treat  to  them,  and  they  are  already  mourn- 
ing the  shortness  of  the  time  remaining  for  their  stay.  They 
are  going  down  this  evening  to  sing  to  blind  Uncle  Isaac. 
They  execute  '  I  have  a  song  I  love  to  sing '  with  real  power." 

The  tenderness  which  exhibited  itself  in  his  relations  to 
children  extended  even  to  the  weakest  animals.  All  things 
both  great  and  small  shared  his  kindness.  Many  a  manumitted 
mouse  has  doubtless  wondered  at  the  good  fortune  which  befell 
him  on  being  caught  in  the  trap  of  which  a  large  man  with 
silver  hair  and  a  kind  face  was  the  owner;  for  it  invariably 
meant  freedom.  In  an  affluent  home  on  Commonwealth 
Avenue  there  lives  even  now  a  well-fed  cat  bearing  the  name 
"  Adoniram,"  who  perhaps  recalls  that  wild  snowy  night  when 
a  hospitable  door  was  unaccountably  opened  for  him  by  the 
same  man  with  the  same  kind  face.  And  to  one  friend  at 
least  a  verse  in  an  early  chapter  of  Matthew  recurred  as  he  saw 
the  same  man  hunting,  with  a  palpitating,  unfeathered  sparrow 
in  his  closed  palm,  for  the  nest  of  horsehair  whence  the  bird- 
ling  had  dropped. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


INTERMEZZO 


Dr.  Gordon's  humor— Negroid  and  other  stories— Quaint  experiences — 
Pastoral  incidents 

AS  has  been  intimated,  Dr.  Gordon  had  a  fund  of  humor 
^  which  was  inexhaustible— humor  of  a  clean,  quaint, 
pointed,  genial  type  with  never  a  suggestion  of  malice  or  un- 
friendliness. He  was  a  great  maker  of  puns.  This  might 
have  been  suspected  by  an  acute  attendant  on  his  preaching. 
He  never,  indeed,  indulged  in  anything  approaching  levity 
in  the  pulpit.  But  the  striking  antitheses  and  clever  allitera- 
tions which  rose  and  jumped,  now  and  then,  like  trout  in  a 
pool,  disclosed  what  he  was  hkely  to  be  at  his  dinner-table. 
This  vein  of  humor  often  bubbled  out  in  happy  characteriza- 
tions or  in  bright  repartee.  A  petition  for  the  removal  of  a 
noble  and  useful  man  from  a  post  of  great  responsibility  was 
once  shown  him.  Glancing  at  the  list  of  AduUamites  who 
had  signed  it  he  said  wittily,  "  They  are  of  three  classes,  I  see : 
figureheads,  soreheads,  deadheads."  At  another  time,  when  at 
Northfield  in  charge  of  the  conference,  a  telegram  was  received 
from  Mr.  Moody  saying  that  he  could  not  be  present,  but  that 
he  had  three  helpers,  Meyer,  Pierson,  and  Pentecost,  who  would 
take  his  place,  and  adding  an  encouraging  Scripture  reference. 
Gordon  retorted  immediately  with  a  counter-reference  (i  Cor. 
xvi.  17) :  "  I  am  glad  of  the  coming  of  Stephanas  and  Fortu- 
natus  and  Achaicus :  for  that  which  was  lacking  on  your  part 
they  have  supplied." 


204  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Those  who  find  any  incompatibility  between  humor  and 
sanctity  forget,  doubtless,  that  the  same  Maker  who  brought 
into  being  the  archangels  created  as  well  the  bill  of  the  toucan 
and  the  bray  of  the  ass.  Humor  is — we  say  it  reverently — a 
divine  attribute. 

Dr.  Gordon's  table  talk  was  brimming  with  this  quality. 
Discussions  over  the  deep  things  of  Scripture  or  the  vexed 
problems  of  missionary  polity  were  frequently  followed  by 
the  free  play  of  anecdote  and  a  restrained  raillery.  If  there 
happened  to  be  an  equally  skilful  raconteur  present,  stories  flew 
back  and  forth  as  balls  on  a  tennis-court.  Then  indeed  did 
iron  sharpen  iron.  A  story  was  never  told  merely  for  the 
sake  of  telling,  but  always  in  response  to  some  other  or  in 
illustration  of  the  point  under  discussion.  Quaint  pastoral 
experiences,  comic  coincidences,  laughable  adventures,  would 
come  out  one  by  one  as  the  conversation  enticed  them. 
There  was  a  long  cyclus  of  negroid  stories  which  had  to  do 
with  the  "  colored  "  mission  of  his  church,  and  another  series 
pertaining  to  the  children  of  Erin,  with  whom  his  pastoral 
and  philanthropic  work  brought  him  occasionally  in  touch. 
The  emergence  of  these  stories  was  always  preceded  by  a 
premonitory  suffusion  over  his  face  of  quiet  fun,  as  of  thejight 
which  glimmers  before  the  dawn. 

It  was  his  often  expressed  intention  to  write  out  a  brief 
volume  of  the  amusing  experiences  which  lightened  his  long 
pastorate ;  but  for  this  entr'acte  undertaking  he  never  to  the 
last  found  time.  Most  of  the  anecdotes  which  so  amused  his 
friends  have  vanished  with  him.  Yet  a  few  have  been  col- 
lected by  diligent  effort,  and  are  reproduced  in  the  following 
pages,  that  those  unacquainted  with  his  family  life  may  get  a 
new  insight  into  his  character. 

The  first  of  these  we  are  able  to  give  in  his  own  words.  It 
was  written  out  at  the  time  when  he  was  calling  attention  to 
the  excesses  in  church  amusements.     The  old  deacon  whose 


INTERMEZZO  205 

story  he  tells  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Ebenezer  Baptist 
Church.  His  opinions  on  theological  currents  and  counter- 
currents  were  given  in  all  confidence  to  the  friendly  pastor, 
and  were  marked  by  a  shrewdness  on  which  the  latter  often 
commented.  Surprised,  no  doubt,  would  he  be  if  he  were  to 
know  how  wide  has  been  the  circulation  of  his  astute  and 
pithy  Africanisms.  On  one  occasion  they  were  rehearsed 
before  a  group  of  Edinburgh  professors,  to  the  amusement  of 
all,  especially  of  Dr.  Calderwood,  the  eminent  writer  on  ethics, 
who  carefully  preserved  them  in  his  note-book.  Our  carpet- 
beating  Epictetus  is,  however,  to  this  day  unaware  of  his 
fame. 

One  epigram  always  pleased  Dr.  Gordon.  "The  black 
deacon  of  our  mission  church,"  he  wrote,  "  gave  us  a  very 
significant  answer  not  long  since.  He  was  complaining  of 
his  Ethiopian  pastor  that  he  did  not  expound  the  Word. 
When  we  expressed  surprise  and  remarked  that  we  had  sup- 
posed he  did,  he  replied,  '  He  can  take  the  Bible  apart  as 
good  as  any  man  I  ever  seed,  but  he  can't  put  it  together 
again.'  This  in  learned  phraseology  would  mean  that  he 
excelled  in  destructive  criticism,  but  not  in  constructive." 


"'I  kicks  ag'in'  it,  sah!' 

"  Such  was  the  vehement  exclamation  of  Brother  Moses,  as 
I  met  him  one  day  in  front  of  an  aristocratic  mansion  where 
he  was  busily  at  work  dusting  carpets,  trimming  the  lawn,  etc. 

"  But  before  I  rehearse  his  sidewalk  discourse  I  must  tell 
my  reader  something  about  this  ebony  sage,  whom  I  have 
known  now  for  more  than  twenty-five  years.  Like  the  singer 
in  the  Canticles,  he  is  '  black,  but  comely.'  Not  that  he  has 
any  natural  beauty  to  attract  one,  but  when  he  becomes  ani- 
mated  upon   spiritual    themes  the  listener  forgets   his   dark 


2o6  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

visage  and  thick  features,  and  the  '  beauty  of  the  Lord '  seems 
to  shine  out  in  his  face. 

"  My  first  acquaintance  with  Moses  began  thus : 

"  Soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  when  a  considerable  influx 
of  freedmen  toward  the  North  had  set  in,  a  Unitarian  neighbor 
said  to  me  one  day,  '  I  wish  you  would  call  in  and  see  my 
colored  man,  who  has  recently  come  to  me  from  the  South. 
I  assure  you  he  is  a  character.  He  seems  to  take  a  great 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  my  soul,  and,  as  he  is  of  your  per- 
suasion, I  would  like  you  to  make  his  acquaintance.  By  all 
means  get  him  to  tell  you  of  his  "  experience." ' 

"  I  called  one  morning,  according  to  request,  and  found 
Moses  busy  in  the  stable  polishing  the  harnesses  and  beguiling 
his  labors  with  the  weird  strains  of  an  old  plantation  melody. 

"After  a  pleasant  introduction  and  some  interchange  of 
Christian  fellowship,  I  said : 

"  '  Brother  Moses,  I  wish  you  would  tell  me  your  Christian 
experience  if  you  can  spare  time  for  it.' 

"  '  I  allers  has  time  enough  for  dat,  sah,'  he  replied,  '  and 
allers  shall  till  I  puts  off  dis  clay  tabernacle,  and  den  I'll  hab 
all  eternity  to  tell  it  in.'  And  then  a  shine  came  into  his 
dusky  visage  more  brilliant  than  that  which  he  was  imparting 
to  his  master's  leather. 

" '  It  was  on  de  sixth  day  ob  October,  1853,'  he  continued, 
'  at  three  o'clock  in  de  mornin',  in  massa's  corn-field  in  ole 
Virginny,  dat  de  Lord  spoke  peace  to  my  soul.  You  see,  I 
had  been  a-mournin'  for  weeks,  yet  all  de  while  more  or  less 
confidential  in  myself,  and  settin'  store  by  de  heaps  ob  good 
works  and  prayers  and  repentin's  I'd  done.  But  at  last  dese 
deceitful  refuges  began  to  gib  way,  and  de  foundations  ob  de 
great  deep  broke  up  in  my  soul,  and  for  three  days  and  nights 
I  could  neither  eat  nor  drink  nor  sleep,  a-mournin'  and  a-wail- 
in'  for  my  sins.  At  last,  nigh  sunrise  in  de  third  day,  out  in 
de  corn-field,   I  sez,   "  Lord,  you  must  save  dis  despairin' 


INTERMEZZO  207 

sinner  or  he'll  die.  I  know  I'se  wicked  and  vile  and  rebellious, 
but  den  you'se  all-merciful  and  forgivin'.  Dat's  your  reputa- 
tion, Lord,  and  I  begs  you  for  de  sake  of  your  great  name  to 
show  mercy  and  not  judgment."  And  so  I  cried  and  pleaded 
dere  on  de  ground.  Den  de  Lord  'peared  to  me  in  de  visions 
ob  de  mornin'  and  reached  out  his  hand  to  me ;  but  he  didn't 
reach  it  out  to  me  flatways  as  though  he  had  any  bread  ob 
Hfe  to  gib  to  my  hungry  soul.  Time  hadn't  come  yet  for 
dat.  But  he  reached  out  his  hand  edgeways  toward  me ; 
and  if  dat  hand  had  been  a  sharp  two-edged  sword  it  couldn't 
cut  me  open  quicker'n  it  did ;  separatin'  de  j'ints  and  de  mar- 
rer,  and  layin'  bare  de  corruption  ob  my  heart.  I  never 
dreamed  what  a  heap  ob  blackness  dere  was  in  dat  heart  till 
dat  mornin'.  But  just  den  I  heerd  a  mighty  noise,  which 
made  me  tremble  from  head  to  foot,  and  I  sez,  "  Lord, 
what's  dat  rumblin'?"  And  he  sez,  "Dat's  your  sins  a-faUin' 
into  hell."  Den,  quicker'n  I  can  tell,  he  reached  out  his  hand 
ag'in,  so  kinder  soft  and  tender,  and  closed  me  up,  and  didn't 
leave  a  rent  or  a  scar  or  a  sore  place  in  my  heart,  and  he  sez 
to  me,  "  Son,  dy  sins,  which  is  many,  is  forgiben  dee."  Den 
I  knowed  I'd  been  born  ag'in ;  dat  old  things  was  passed 
away,  and  all  things  had  become  new.  Happified  was  I. 
From  de  risin'  ob  de  sun  to  de  goin'  down  ob  de  same  dat 
day,  it  'peared  like  I  was  in  heben,  a-standin'  on  de  sea  ob 
glass,  wid  de  harp  ob  God  in  my  hand,  and  golden  slippers 
on  my  feet,  singin'  de  song  ob  Moses  and  de  Lamb. 

"  '  From  dat  day  I'se  been  surer  dat  I'se  borned  ag'in  dan  I 
am  dat  I  was  borned  de  fust  time ;  for  I  can't  nowise  remem- 
ber my  fust  birth,  but  de  second  I'll  remember  all  eternity, 
and  never  cease  to  praise  de  Lamb  dat  redeemed  me. 

" '  Dat's  my  experience.  Some  folks  don't  believe  it,  but  I 
knows  it,  for  it's  what  I'se  tasted  and  seen.' 

"  Now  I  dare  say  that  my  readers,  having  listened  to  this 
extraordinary  story,  will  conclude  that  any  one  capable  of 


2o8  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

such  highly  wrought  enthusiasm  as  this  would  have  very  little 
sober  sense  or  solid  judgment  for  the  ordinary  affairs  of  the 
church  of  Christ.  On  the  contrary,  Moses,  becoming  a  dea- 
con in  a  colored  church  not  long  after  my  first  acquaintance 
with  him,  has  used  the  office  so  well,  and  gained  for  himself 
such  a  good  degree,  that  by  general  consent  he  is  now  re- 
garded as  a  very  pillar  and  stay  among  his  brethren.  His 
good  judgment  in  managing  the  affairs  of  God's  house  has 
constantly  siu'prised  me ;  even  more  have  I  been  impressed 
with  his  fine  discernment  of  evangelical  truth,  and  his  deep 
insight  into  the  problems  of  Christian  life  and  experience. 
Certainly  he  must  have  been  profoundly  taught  of  the  Spirit ; 
and  I  can  say  sincerely  that  I  am  always  spiritually  refreshed 
by  my  wayside  conversations  with  him,  and  that  if  I  should 
ever  be  in  great  affliction  or  darkness  of  mind,  I  can  think  of 
no  one  to  whom  I  should  more  readily  turn  for  consolation 
than  to  black  Moses. 

"  But  now  to  the  sidewalk  discourse. 

"  '  Have  you  any  special  religious  interest  in  your  church?  ' 
I  asked  Moses,  after  his  few  words  of  hearty  greeting  on  the 
occasion  referred  to. 

"'No  room  for  any  interest,'  he  repHed;  'de  church  is  so 
lumbered  up  wid  fairs  and  festibals  and  jollifications  dat  de 
Sperit's  got  no  chance  to  work  among  us.  Leastwise  dat's 
my  solemn  'pinion,  dough  some  sez  I'se  heady  and  setful. 
But  I'se  sick  of  it,  sah!  I  goes  to  church  Sunday,  after  prayin' 
to  be  in  de  Sperit  on  de  Lord's  day,  and  de  fust  thing  de 
minister  gets  up  and  reads  a  long  program  of  de  worldly  doin's 
and  goin's  for  de  week— de  music  and  de  supper  and  de 
gramatic  readings  and  what  not ;  twenty-five  cents  admission, 
and  all  must  come.  I  tell  ye,  I  kicks  ag'in'  it,  sah,  and  will 
long's  I  hab  bref  in  my  body.' 

"  '  What  do  you  mean  by  saying  that  you  kick  against  it? ' 
I  asked. 


INTERMEZZO  209 

"  '  I  rebukes  it,  sah,  in  de  name  ob  de  Lord.  Last  Sunday 
I  spoke  out  in  meetin'  and  said,  "  Breddren,  what's  ye  been 
redeemed  for  and  brought  into  de  church?  Didn't  de  Lord 
tell  you  dat  you'se  to  be  de  light  ob  de  world  and  de  salt  ob 
de  earth?  Well,  when  I  sees  how  much  time  some  ob  you 
gibs  to  fairs  and  festibals,  and  den  you  can't  come  to  de 
prayer-meetin'  'cause  you'se  so  busy,  I  sez,  if  you  ever  was 
de  Lord's  true  salt,  you've  lost  your  flavor,  and  if  you  don't 
look  out  you'll  be  cast  out  and  trodden  underfoot  ob  men." ' 

" '  But,  Brother  Moses,'  I  asked,  wishing  to  draw  out  fur- 
ther wisdom  from  this  deep  fountain,  'don't  you  think  these 
things  are  necessary  for  making  the  church  attractive  to  the 
masses  and  inviting  to  the  young?  ' 

"'No,  sah!'  he  replied,  with  great  warmth;  'no,  sah! 
Christians  is  de  salt  ob  de  world,  and  dey  is  put  into  de  world 
to  preserve  it  from  corruption.  But  some's  got  de  idee  dat 
you  must  bring  de  corruption  into  de  church  so's  to  preserve 
de  salt,  as  dough  de  gospel  is  goin'  to  die  out  unless  it's  sug- 
ared and  seasoned  wid  carnal  'musements.  Dat's  de  pop'lar 
notion.     But  I  kicks  ag'in'  it,  sah.' 

" '  Yes ;  but  people  say  there  is  no  harm  in  a  social  gather- 
ing and  a  plain  supper,  and  a  little  music  and  reading  for 
entertaining  the  people,'  I  continued. 

" '  Well,  dat's  de  question,'  repHed  Moses.  '  I  takes  de 
Scriptures  for  my  standp'int  ob  faith  and  practice,  and  I  hab 
searched  in  vain  to  find  where  de  'postles  and  elders  ever  got 
up  suppers  of  turkey  and  chickens  and  sandwiches  and  cold 
tongue,  and  den  invited  de  breddren  to  come  to  church  and 
eat  'em  at  twenty-five  cents  a  head.  No,  brudder ;  'muse- 
ments in  de  church  is  unsanctifying,  howsomever  folks  may 
think  'bout  it.  We  had  a  festibal  in  our  meetin'-house  two 
weeks  back.  I  looks  in  a  few  minutes,  and  sees  de  crowds 
dare  and  de  doin's.  Fust  de  pianny  and  de  fiddle  strikes  up ; 
and  sez  I,  "  Take  off  de  'straint,  and  how  long  'fore  dis  whole 


2IO  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

company'd  be  a-dancin'  and  a-vvaltzin'  in  de  house  ob  God?  " 
Den  dey  had  de  guess-cake  and  de  waffles,  and  waffled  off  a 
caHca  quilt  to  de  one  dat  drawed  de  prize ;  and  sez  I,  "  What's 
dis  but  eddicatin'  people  to  gamblin'  and  lotteries?  "  Den  de 
gramatic  reader  comes  on,  all  dressed  up  wid  ribbons  an'  fur- 
belows, an'  when  I  seed  her  rollin'  her  eyes  an'  p'intin*  her 
fingers,  sez  I  ag'in,  "  What's  dis  but  jus'  nussin'  our  young  'uns 
for  de  stage  and  de  theater?  "  I  tell  you,  I  kicks  ag'in'  it, 
sah,  and  allers  shall. 

" '  Well,  next  night  was  prayer-meetin' ;  only  twenty  out, 
an'  all  as  mum  as  if  de  Lord  had  never  opened  deir  mouths, 
and  when  I  warns  em  'bout  it  dey  sez,  "  Brudder  Moses,  de 
Sperit  didn't  move  us."  And  sez  I,  "  De  Sperit  moved  ye  fas' 
'nough  last  evenin'  at  de  festibal,  but  I'se  'fraid  'twas  de 
sperit  dat  works  in  de  children  of  disobedience."  Brudder,  I 
reads  it  dat  dey  dat's  goin'  to  wear  de  crown  must  bear  de 
cross ;  but  what's  we  doin'  in  dese  days  but  'bolishin'  de  cross 
and  puttin'  eatin'  and  drinkin'  and  'musement  and  'dulgence 
in  de  place  ob  it?     And  whar's  it  goin'  to  end?  ' 

"  Here  Moses  pointed  furtively  to  the  residence  in  front  of 
which  we  were  standing,  and  in  a  confidential  tone  said,  '  De 
folks  dat  libs  here  was  once  'fessors  ob  religion,  but  I  reckon 
dey's  backslid,  for  dey  don't  hab  no  prayers  in  de  family  now, 
and  dey's  all  taken  up  wid  theaters  and  card-playin'  and  balls 
and  parties.  O  brudder,  I  has  great  sorrer  and  trabail  ob  soul 
when  I  sees  how  de  debbil  prowls  round  and  steals  de  Lord's 
sheep  right  out  ob  his  fold.' 

" '  Don't  you  think,  Moses,'  I  asked,  '  that  the  devil  works 
harder  to  lead  Christians  astray  than  he  does  to  destroy  the 
people  of  the  world  ?  ' 

"'Don't  I  thinks?  I  kpows  it,  sah.  Why  d'ye  s'pose  I 
works  and  tugs  and  sweats  beatin'  dese  carpets  and  doin'  dese 
chores?  'Tain't  de  dollar  dat's  in  my  pocket  dat  I'se  workin' 
for;  I'se  got  dat  already.     It's  de  dollars  dat's  in  my  employ- 


INTERMEZZO  211 

er's  pocket  dat  I'se  workin'  for.  So  if  de  Lord  has  a  real 
shure-'nuff  saint — one  dat's  plain  stamped  wid  de  image  and 
'scription  ob  de  King,  and  shines  like  a  new  silver  dollar — de 
debbil,  he'll  rise  up  early  and  sit  up  late  to  get  hold  ob  dat  one. 
But  your  'bandoned  sinners  and  your  high-steppin'  ones,  dat's 
all  taken  up  wid  deir  moralisms  and  self-righteousness,  he 
doesn't  trouble  himself  'bout ;  he  knows  he's  got  dem  already.' 
"  Here  our  report  of  the  sidewalk  discussion  might  properly 
end,  but  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  Moses  to  leave  the  impres- 
sion that  he  is  only  a  sour  and  censorious  critic,  who  takes 
satisfaction  in  pointing  out  the  faults  of  Christians.  On  the 
contrary,  with  an  indescribable  pathos  and  tenderness,  he  thus 
concluded  his  talk :  '  Well,  brudder,  I'se  prayin'  'bout  it 
night  and  day.  It's  'cause  de  Lord's  children  don't  think, 
dat  dey  does  so.  You  remember  how  he  sez,  "  My  people 
don't  consider."  Well,  I'se  been  on  de  way  now  nigh  on  to 
forty  years,  and  it's  been  my  'sperience  dat  a  day's  consider- 
in's  worth  more'n  a  year's  workin' ;  'cause  when  we  takes  a 
day  for  considerin'  now  and  den,  we  get's  'quainted  wid  de 
Lord,  and  finds  out  his  secrets,  and  de  Lord  tells  us  jus'  what 
he's  doin'  and  what  he's  a-goin'  to  do.  And,  brudder,  he  tells 
me  in  my  soul  I'se  goin'  to  see  a  great  outpourin'  ob  de  Sperit 
afore  I  dies.  Den  when  Christians  gets  deir  tongues  afire,  as 
dey  did  on  de  day  ob  Pentecost,  how  our  dross  will  be  burned 
up,  and  what  a  cracklin'  dere  will  be  in  de  hay,  wood,  and 
stubble  we'se  buildin'  into  our  churches  in  dese  days!  But, 
brudder,  'twon't  come  easy.  We'se  got  to  get  low  before  de 
Lord,  and  be  ob  one  'cord  and  in  one  place.  Trouble  is  now 
dat  ebery  one's  ob  a  different  'cord ;  one  wants  one  thing,  and 
'nother  wants  'nother.  But  when  we  gets  where  we  all  wants 
de  same  thing,  so  we's  satisfied  to  lib  all  our  days  on  a  crust 
ob  bread  if  we  can  only  hab  de  Lord  and  de  fullness  ob  his 
Sperit,  den  he'll  come  down  like  rain  on  de  mown  grass ;  and 
dat  day's  a-comin',  brudder!' 


212  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

"  Reader,  Moses  is  a  real  character,  and  not  a  myth.  He 
was  bom  in  slavery,  and  if  he  is  able  to  read  it  is  only  a  recent 
acquirement.  But  his  mind  is  saturated  with  the  Scripture  as 
he  has  caught  its  phraseology  from  the  rude  preachers  of  his 
race.  May  it  not  be  that  he  is  one  of  the  '  babes '  to  whom 
the  Father  has  revealed  some  things  which  he  has  '  hid  from 
the  wise  and  prudent '  ?  " 


II 


The  pulpit  of  this  colored  church  being  at  one  time  va- 
cant, various  probationers  were  asked  to  supply.  The  stanchly 
conservative  deacon  took  a  great  interest  in  the  candidates 
who  came  from  time  to  time,  and  rigidly  tested  their  ortho- 
doxy and  "  pulpit  style."  Of  one,  who  took  with  the  people 
because  of  a  popular  narrative  quality  in  his  sermon,  he  com- 
plained on  the  ground  that  he  was  "  too  fond  of  retailing  anti- 
dotes." Finally  he  secured  a  brother  from  South  Carolina, 
sound,  hearty,  and  suitable  in  every  respect.  The  pastor  and 
committee  from  the  white  church  were  invited  up  to  pass 
judgment  upon  him.  Coming  in  a  little  late,  they  found  the 
whole  gathering  swaying  back  and  forth  in  an  ecstasy  of  reli- 
gious excitement.  The  preacher,  with  hair  kinky  as  astrakhan 
wool  and  a  face  like  polished  teak-wood,  had  worked  them  to 
a  pitch  of  unusual  fervor  by  his  thrilling  eloquence.  It  was  a 
veritable  plantation  homily  untainted  by  sobering  New  Eng- 
land influences. 

The  text  was  drawn  from  the  Eighty-seventh  Psalm  :  "  And 
of  Zion  it  shall  be  said.  This  and  that  man  was  born  in  her," 
When  the  visitors  entered,  the  preacher  was  maintaining  that, 
wherever  a  man's  home  might  happen  to  be,  his  spiritual 
birthplace  was  of  necessity  in  Zion,  the  joy  of  the  earth. 
"  Let  us  go  to  de  city  ob  Charleston,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "  an', 
hubberin'  ober  dat  great  an'  wicked  city,  let  us  shout  down 


INTERMEZZO  213 

to  de  Lord's  chillern,  'Whar  war  yer  born?'  an'  dey  will 
holler  back,  '  We'se  born  in  Zion,'  An'  den  let  us  go  on  to 
Richmond  an'  ask  de  breddren  dere,  'Whar  war  yer  born?' 
an'  dey  will  say  too,  '  We'se  born  in  Zion.' "  So  he  passed 
on  from  city  to  city  up  the  Atlantic  seaboard  until  there  were 
none  left  to  question.  The  appeal  was  then  carried  to  Green- 
land, and  the  Christians  "libbin'  in  dat  benighted  Ian'  "  were 
asked,  "  Whar  war  yer  born?  "  and  returned  the  same  unfailing 
answer.  "  An'  now,  breddren,"  he  continued,  "let  us  go  to  de 
north  pole,  an'  twinin'  our  legs  round  de  pole,  let  us  lift  up 
our  voices  and  cry,  '  Whar  war  yer  born  ?  '  "  The  congrega- 
tion was  now  keyed  to  the  highest  tension.  Women  were 
clutching  the  seats,  men  were  swaying  in  tremulous  excite- 
ment, as  the  rhythmic  allegory  proceeded. 

The  visiting  committee  looked  on  in  astonishment  from 
the  rear  of  the  church.  It  was  felt  that  the  preacher  had 
perforce  reached  the  end  of  his  journey.  Not  at  all.  After 
pausing  a  moment  to  recover  breath,  he  continued,  "  Bred- 
dren, let  us  go  on  to  de  east  pole.'"  Up  to  this  point  Gordon 
had  sat  as  impassive  as  a  statue  of  Memnon,  the  twinkle 
of  his  eye  alone  suggesting  his  appreciation  of  the  scene ;  but 
the  last  flight  was  too  much  for  that  self-restraint  which  had, 
among  his  people,  passed  into  a  proverb.  He  broke  out  into 
uncontrollable  and  agonizing  explosions  of  laughter. 

There  were  many  other  black  stories  of  a  similar  character. 
He  used  to  recall  with  amusement  the  testimony  of  a  freshly 
converted  brother  in  the  same  mission.  This  man  had  formerly 
been  a  devotee  of  the  ball-room,  and  confessed  that,  even  in 
his  renewed  state,  whenever  his  ears  caught  the  strident  note  of 
bow  on  fiddle  his  unregenerate  feet  would  begin  to  move, 
"  like  de  unthinking  horse  rushing  into  battle."  Gordon  would 
tell,  too,  of  one  who,  commenting  on  the  power  of  the  gospel, 
remarked  that  it  was  able  "  to  make  the  immoral  moral,  the 
intemperate  temperate,  and  the  industrious  dustrious."     With 


214  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  negro  preachers  of  reconstruction  days,  whose  chief  ambi- 
tion seemed  to  be  to  found  "  universities  "  in  the  "  black  beh," 
with  generous  powers  for  conferring  degrees,  he  had  in  his 
early  ministry  large  experience.  His  own  church  was  wealthy, 
and  well  known  for  its  quick  response  to  appeals  for  help. 
Every  few  months  a  shining-faced  darky  with  huge  glazed 
bag  would  call  at  his  house  and  talk  eloquently  on  the  prom- 
ising prospects  of  a  new  college  or  on  the  great  needs  of  the 
particular  region  where  his  people  were  putting  up  a  church 
building.  One  of  these,  with  an  ingenuous  fervor  which 
immediately  corrected  the  bad  impression  his  mistake  might 
otherwise  have  conveyed,  declared  himself  to  be  "  in  a  deplor- 
able state  of  mendacity."  *  And  another,  when  required  by 
a  committee-man  with  some  sharpness  to  give  the  reason 
why  colored  collectors  for  feeble  institutions  invariably  made 
for  the  Clarendon  Street  Church,  answered  archly,  "  When  we 
goes  shootin',  sah,  we  alius  goes  whar  de  ducks  is."  It  may 
be  added  that  this  retort  touched  the  hearts  of  the  committee 
to  the  extent  of  a  substantial  subscription. 

Ill 

Of  the  quaint  experiences  incidental  to  every  pastor's  life  Gor- 
don had  his  full  share.  Marriages  always  recall  to  a  minister's 
family  much  that  is  amusing.  Silk  handkerchiefs  and  walk- 
ing-sticks were  to  many  whom  he  married,  like  the  cowry 
shells  of  African  tribes,  a  convenient  legal  tender  with  which 
to  pay  the  customary  wedding-fee.  Once  he  received  a 
fifty-cent  piece,  out  of  which  he  was  asked  to  "  take  what  he 
thought  right."  The  fact  that  in  seven  cases  out  of  ten  he 
made  over  the  fee  to  the  bride  was  deeply  appreciated  by 
many.  This  so  impressed  one  whom  he  married  that  he  re- 
turned in  a  day  or  two  with  a  friend  and  suggested  that  the 

*  i.e.,  mendicancy. 


INTERMEZZO  21 5 

minister  might  like  to  pay  the  latter's  fare  to  New  York, 
whither  he  had  been  unexpectedly  summoned.  At  funerals, 
too,  the  grotesque  often  entered  unbidden,  as  when  a  bereaved 
husband  requested  Dr.  Gordon  to  give  out  the  doxology  while 
the  friends  were  assembling. 

In  visiting  among  the  poor,  the  pitiful  and  the  droll  were 
commingled  now  and  then  in  a  startling  way.  One  poor 
creature,  in  relating  the  various  misfortunes  which  had  befallen 
her,  declared  that  some  years  before  she  had  been  "struck 
with  lightnin'."  "  I  went  to  the  cupboard  when  I  realized 
what  had  happened,"  she  continued,  "and  took  a  strong 
emetic.  After  I  had  thrown  up  the  electric  fluid  I  soon  re- 
covered." 

During  the  revival  of  '77  the  after-meetings  were  held,  as 
has  been  mentioned,  in  the  Clarendon  Street  Church.  One 
evening  Gordon  was  called  to  the  rear  of  the  church  by  an 
Irishman,  who  acknowledged  that  he  was  seeking  light,  but 
who  refused  to  talk  with  any  save  the  pastor.  "  I  want  to 
see  Dr.  Garrdon.  I'm  goin'  to  give  him  the  priferince,"  he 
reiterated  again  and  again.  The  two  talked  together  some 
time.  Finally  the  son  of  Erin,  who  had  been  an  outrageous 
drunkard,  declared  himself  converted.  He  was  not  seen  again 
for  nearly  a  year.  One  smiling  day  in  June,  however,  he 
turned  up  at  the  pastor's  house  in  best  clothes  and  happiest 
vein.  This  time  there  was  another  with  him.  He  related 
how  he  had  found  work  in  the  country  as  a  coachman,  how 
he  had  stood  without  drinking  for  a  twelvemonth,  and  how 
he  had  won  the  heart  of  the  cook  in  his  master's  establish- 
ment. "  Shiu-e  an'  we  talked  over  the  question  of  parsons 
atwixt  us,"  he  continued,  "  and  decided  to  give  Dr.  Garrdon 
the  priferince."  But  unfortunately  "  Dr.  Garrdon  "  was  away 
and  was  not  to  return  till  evening.  It  was  agreed  that  the 
betrothed  should  separate  till  later  and  visit  among  their  re- 
spective friends.    The  decision  was,  alas!  fatal.    The  "  fri'nds  " 


2i6  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

of  the  groom  were  of  a  dubious,  dangerous  sort,  and  before 
he  left  them  for  the  minister's  home  he  had  spent  his  all  and 
changed  his  best  clothes  at  the  pawnbroker's  for  others  of  a 
very  doubtful  respectability.  The  wedding  was  now  out  of 
the  question.  He  determined,  however,  to  keep  his  engage- 
ment. It  so  happened  that  when  he  called  Gordon  himself 
went  to  the  door.  The  battered,  half-sober  figure  on  the  steps 
greeted  him  with  his  whole  serio-comic  story,  and  then  added 
that,  though  he  had  "  fri'nds  "  in  the  city  who  unquestionably 
would  lend  him  enough  to  get  back  to  his  work,  he  had  de- 
cided, in  placing  his  loan,  "  to  give  Dr.  Garrdon  the  priferince, 
as  he  knew  him  to  be  a  ginerous,  free  man." 

There  can  be  little  question  that  the  unfriendly  treatment 
which  prophecy  often  receives  at  the  hands  of  Christians  is 
half  due  to  the  eccentricities  of  those  strange  folk  who  cherish  a 
special  dehght  for  fantastic  interpretations.  One  of  these,  a 
correspondent  from  the  far  West,  was  accustomed  to  write 
Dr.  Gordon  the  most  extravagantly  long  and  perversely  ir- 
rational letters  on  the  Apocalypse.  These  he  sent  in  the 
largest-size  government  envelops,  every  inch  of  which  would 
be  covered  with  titles  and  degrees. 

Of  a  visit  received  from  another  of  this  ilk,  Gordon 
often  spoke  with  amusement.  On  entering  the  parlor  one 
morning,  he  was  startled  by  the  peremptory  question,  "  Do 
you  believe  this  Book?"  which  accompanied  the  vigorous 
shaking  of  a  Bagster  Bible  in  front  of  his  face. 

"  I  think  I  do,"  was  the  quiet  reply. 

"  Do  you  believe  it  from  cover  to  cover?  "  inquired  the 
stranger  again. 

"Yes." 

"  From  Genesis  to  Revelation?  " 

"  I  do." 

"Then  we  can  proceed  to  business."     After  a  pause  the 


INTERMEZZO  2 1  7 

visitor  continued  abruptly,  "Who  are  the  two  witnesses  in 
Revelation  xi.?  " 

"  I  am  not  sure,  though  I  have  my  own  opinion,"  replied 
Gordon. 

"They  are,"  retorted  the  other,  with  great  positiveness, 
"myself  and  Mr.  Moody." 

This  statement  was  indeed  startling,  but  the  request  which 
followed  was  even  more  so.  "  Now,"  said  he,  "  I  will  tell 
you  what  I  am  here  for.  I  want  you  to  call  a  meeting  to 
ordain  me  for  the  ministry." 

"  But  why  don't  you  get  those  who  are  acquainted  with 
you  to  do  this  for  you — some  one  in  your  own  town  who 
knows  your  history  and  your  qualifications?"  returned  Dr. 
Gordon. 

"  Well,  to  tell  the  truth,"  he  replied,  in  a  confidential  tone, 

"  they  say  in  W ,  where  I  come  from,  that  I  am  not  quite 

level-headed ;  but  I  am." 

"  Yes,"  answered  Gordon,  encouragingly. 

"Yes;  I  learned  some  time  ago  that  my  head  has  two 
poles,  one  positive,  the  other  negative.  Now  every  morning, 
when  I  get  up,  I  go  to  the  glass  and,  putting  my  hands  to 
my  head  "  (which  he  proceeded  to  do  by  way  of  illustration), 
"  I  bring  those  poles  into  proper  balance.  That  makes  me 
level-headed  for  the  day." 

With  this  explanation,  and  with  a  few  words  of  regret  that 
Dr.  Gordon  did  not  see  fit  to  induct  him  into  the  ministry, 
he  seized  his  hat,  made  for  the  door,  and  disappeared. 

IV 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  record  here  the  following  in- 
teresting experience : 

"  Opening  my  mail  one  morning,"  writes  Dr.  Gordon,  "  I 
found  a  most  earnest  appeal  from  a  poor  student  in  whom  I 


2i8  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

had  for  some  time  taken  much  interest.  He  detailed  the  cir- 
cumstances by  wliich,  in  spite  of  his  utmost  endeavors,  he  had 
been  brought  into  rare  straits;  debts  for  board  and  books 
severely  pressing  him  until  he  was  utterly  discouraged.  He 
was  extremely  reluctant  to  ask  aid,  and  only  wrote  now,  he 
said,  to  tell  me  how  earnestly  he  had  besought  the  Lord  for 
deliverance  and  to  request  my  prayers  in  his  behalf.  It  was 
only  a  little  sum  that  he  needed  to  help  him  out  of  his  di- 
lemma—fifty dollars— but  it  was  a  great  sum  for  a  poor 
student,  and  he  was  now  asking  the  Lord  to  send  it.  Hav- 
ing read  his  letter  with  real  sympathy,  I  continued  opening 
my  mail,  when,  to  my  surprise,  the  next  letter  whose  seal  I 
broke  was  from  a  wealthy  gentleman,  expressing  great  thank- 
fulness for  a  service  I  had  rendered  him  a  few  days  before, 
and  inclosing  a  check  of  fifty  dollars,  which  he  begged  me  to 
accept  as  a  token  of  his  gratitude.  Instantly  I  perceived  that 
the  poor  student's  prayers  were  heard — that  the  second  letter 
contained  the  answer  to  the  first ;  and,  indorsing  the  check,  I 
sent  it  by  return  mail  to  the  young  man,  with  my  congratu- 
lations for  his  speedy  deliverance.  The  noon  mail  of  the 
same  day  brought  another  letter  of  the  same  sort  from  another 
college.  A  young  colored  man,  full  of  faith  and  earnest  desire 
to  fit  himself  for  useful  service  in  the  Lord's  work,  had  made 
himself  known  to  me  some  months  before ;  and  as  he  had,  by 
his  earnest  piety  and  diligent  scholarship,  approved  himself 
to  his  teacher,  I  had  done  what  I  could  to  help  him.  He 
now  wrote,  telling  a  pathetic  story  of  his  struggles,  how  spar- 
ingly he  had  lived,  how  he  had  failed  in  getting  help  from  ex- 
pected sources,  and  how  now,  having  reached  the  end  of  the 
term,  he  was  in  debt  and  had  nothing  to  pay.  He  too  had 
called  earnestly  upon  the  Lord,  but  as  yet  no  help  had  come. 
To  show  me  how  prudently  he  had  hved  he  inclosed  a  list 
of  his  expenditures,  which  demonstrated  clearly  enough  how 
poorly  he  had  fared.     Toward  night  I  was  at  the  telegraph 


INTERMEZZO  2 1 9 

office  writing  a  despatch  to  the  poor  student  to  say  that  I 
would  be  responsible  for  one  half  of  the  amount  needed  pro- 
vided he  could  raise  the  other  half  from  Mr.  W .     But 

what  his  street  number  was  I  could  not  remember;  neither 
could  I  recall  just  the  amount  needed.  So  I  went  back  to 
the  house  to  find  his  letter  in  order  to  get  the  exact  address. 
On  my  way  I  called  at  a  certain  place  to  pay  a  \y^— thirty- 
seven  dollars  and  fifty  cents.  I  had  written  a  check  for  the 
sum,  and  as  I  passed  it  in  to  the  bookkeeper,  he  turned  his 
book  to  look  up  the  account,  and  said,  '  This  bill  is  paid,  sir ; 
you  do  not  owe  us  anything.'  *  Who  paid  it  ?  '  I  inquired.  '  I 
cannot  say ;  only  I  know  that  it  was  settled  several  weeks 
ago.'  And  so  saying  he  handed  back  my  check.  I  took  it, 
quite  surprised  to  find  myself  so  much  better  off  than  I  ex- 
pected, and  returned  to  my  house  to  find  the  poor  student's 
letter.  Referring  to  it,  I  found  that,  in  adding  up  his  httle 
list  of  debts,  it  came  to  just  thirty-seven  dollars*  and  fifty  cents. 
The  Lord  had  provided  the  exact  amount  even  to  the  cents. 
I  had  only  to  indorse  the  Lord's  check  again  and  send  it  for- 
ward. 

"  Mark  you,  it  was  not  my  prayers  that  were  answered,  for 
I  had  not  been  moved  especially  to  pray  for  these  young  men, 
not  being  aware  of  the  necessity.  It  was  not  my  money ;  the 
Lord  provided  the  exact  funds  in  each  instance;  but  I  have 
told  you  hterally  what  happened.  Does  not  the  Lord  know 
how  to  provide?  " 

A  strange  incident  occurred  in  the  vestry  of  Dr.  Gordon's 
church  shortly  before  his  death.  He  was  standing  after  meet- 
ing, conversing  with  a  few  friends,  when  the  sexton  stepped 
up  to  tell  him  that  some  one  in  the  lobby  insisted  on  seeing 
him  immediately.  Going  out  in  response  to  the  call,  he  was 
accosted  by  a  man  with  harsh,  deep-cut  features  and  a  blotched 
face,  who  demanded  money  for  a  night's  lodging  in  a  rough. 


2  20  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

peremptory  tone.  Dr.  Gordon  replied  gently  that  he  would 
help  him,  and  took  out  his  pencil  to  write  an  order.  This 
seemed,  however,  only  to  embitter  the  stranger.  He  broke 
out  in  violent  abuse  of  society  and  of  the  church,  denouncing 
God  as  responsible  for  his  poverty  and  for  the  miserable  estate 
into  which  he  had  fallen.  In  the  course  of  this  outburst  he 
disclosed  the  fact  that  he  had  been  that  day  discharged  from 
prison  after  serving  a  long  sentence  for  theft. 

After  several  vain  attempts  to  quiet  him,  Gordon  desisted 
altogether,  thinking  that  the  man's  excitement  would  soon 
subside.  Meanwhile  another  had  entered  the  hallway  and 
stood  Hstening  intently.  When  the  former  paused  for  a  mo- 
ment's breath,  the  new-comer  stepped  forward  and,  placing 
his  hand  on  his  shoulder,  began  telling  him  slowly  and  mi- 
nutely the  story  of  the  crucifixion.  He  described  in  detail  the 
choosing  of  Barabbas,  the  procession  to  Golgotha,  the  mock- 
ery of  the  soldiers. 

Then  he  spoke  of  the  malefactors.  "  They  nailed  him  be- 
tween two  thieves,"  said  he.  "  One  of  them  abused  him  and 
cursed  him ;  the  other  repented,  was  forgiven,  and  received 
the  promise  of  the  eternal  companionship  of  Jesus."  He 
stopped  and  asked  slowly,  "  Do  you  know  who  that  man 
was  ?  " 

"  No,"  retorted  the  other,  his  harsh  tone  softening  some- 
what with  curiosity ;    "  I  never  heard." 

"  Well,"  said  he,  with  emotion,  "  it  was  I.  For  years  I 
lived  the  life  of  a  thief  and  outcast;  for  years  I  broke  the 
laws  of  God  and  man.  Finally  I  was  caught  and  put  in  jail 
over  in  Charlestown.  There  I  stayed  month  after  month. 
In  the  quiet  of  my  cell  I  saw  a  face,  sad,  tear-stained,  look- 
ing at  me  with  beseeching  eyes.  It  followed  me  out  of 
prison ;  it  met  me  in  a  little  mission  down-town ;  it  con- 
strained me,  and  I  yielded. 

"  I  cried  out, '  Remember  me.  Lord  Jesus,  when  thou  com- 


INTERMEZZO  2  2 1 

est  in  thy  kingdom.'  Immediately  the  promise  of  Paradise 
came  to  my  heart. 

"  I  was  that  malefactor! " 

There  was  a  moment  of  perfect  stillness.  Then  the  stranger 
said  in  a  low  voice,  "  Yes,  and  I  was  the  other." 

Then  he  went  out. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

"CHRIST    FOR   THE    WORLD" 

The  significance  of  the  modern  missionary  movement — Misapprehensions 
concerning  it — Dr.  Gordon's  work  for  this  cause — The  International 
Conference  of  Missions  in  London — The  Scotch  campaign — Chair- 
man of  the  Executive  Committee,  A.  B.  M.  U.— Personal  relations 
with  missionaries 

"  TTISTORY,"  says  Schaffle,  "moves  on  the  axis  of  religion," 
1.  J-  This  truth  is  rarely  recognized  while  history  is  making, 
but  is  always  apparent  when  the  record  is  completed  and  filed 
away  in  libraries.  Most  men  to-day  agree  that  the  present 
century  is  one  of  preeminence.  Yet  its  claim  to  distinction 
lies,  according  to  their  thinking,  in  its  career  of  political,  in- 
stitutional, and  scientific  development.  The  men  of  to-mor- 
row, however,  we  venture  to  predict,  will  consider  as  its  most 
noteworthy  feature  its  religious  unfoldings.  For  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  man  religion  appears  to  be  losing  its  local, 
national,  and  ethnic  character,  and  to  be  entering  upon  a  uni- 
versal phase.  The  faiths  of  the  ancient  world  were  for  the 
family  and  for  the  state.  Outsiders  who  had  no  share  in  the 
sacred  fire  were  barbarians,  without  claims  and  beyond  the 
pale  of  sympathy  and  fellowship.  Judaism  itself  was  as  ex- 
clusive as  the  religions  of  the  hearth.  But  when  the  apostles 
announced  the  breaking  down  of  the  middle  wall  of  partition, 
and  proclaimed  the  unity  of  Greek  and  Scythian,  of  bond  and 
free,  a  new  era  opened.     Nevertheless,  far  from  being  a  pro- 

222 


"  CHRIST  FOR    THE    WORLD'''  223 

duct  of  the  age,  the  new  evangel  was  centuries  in  advance  of 
the  age's  comprehension,  as  is  clearly  seen  by  the  lapse  from 
it  which  followed,  and  which  has  made  of  ecclesiastical  history 
a  vast  parenthesis  of  error,  a  terrible  deflection  from  the  in- 
tent, teaching,  and  commands  of  Jesus  and  of  Paul.  This 
hiatus— inscrutably  permitted  of  God— endured  from  the  days 
of  the  apostles  to  the  period  of  modem  Protestant  missions, 
which  began  with  the  disembarkation  of  Carey  at  Calcutta  in 

1793- 

If,  as  the  author  of  "  Ecce  Homo  "  tells  us,  the  missionary 
impulse  is  the  test  of  a  standing  or  falling  church,  the  church 
of  fifteen  centuries  was  essentially  decadent.  For  during 
this  whole  dark  interim  her  responsibility  toward  the  remote 
and  pagan  peoples  of  the  earth  seems  to  have  been  almost 
completely  forgotten  or  ignored.  The  work  of  Anskar  and 
Boniface  and  Ulfilas  and  Columba  and  John  Ehot  and  Lullius 
is  indeed  memorable  ;  yet  it  was  not  in  the  least  characteristic 
of  the  age.  Evangelism  was  discovuaged  on  the  ground  of 
the  unworthiness  of  the  heathen.  Turk  and  Saracen  and 
Moor  were  enemies  to  destroy,  not  possible  converts  and 
brethren  in  the  commonwealth  of  faith.  Whenever  prosely- 
tism  was  entered  upon  it  was  the  proselytism  of  the  sword,  as 
when  Charlemagne  drove  the  followers  of  Wittekind  into  the 
cold  baptismal  waters  of  the  Elbe,  or  when  the  Jews  were 
compelled  to  church-going  on  Holy  Cross  days  at  Rome. 

We  might  naturally  have  looked  for  some  general  evange- 
listic impulse  at  the  Reformation  did  we  not  remember  that 
the  Calvinists  along  the  dikes  of  Holland  and  inside  the  forti- 
fications of  La  Rochelle,  as  also  the  Puritans  watching  for  the 
galleons  of  the  Armada  off  the  misty  channel  headlands,  were 
engaged  in  a  struggle  for  existence  which  gave  little  time  for 
considering  the  needs  of  the  dark  peoples  without  in  the 
world's  penumbra.  Even  Luther,  with  all  his  light,  held  to 
the  curiously  inverted  theory  that,  for  the  bringing  back  of 


2  24  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Christ,  evangelical  religion  must  cease  from  off  the  earth,* 
while  his  successors,  as  soon  as  they  were  released  in  some 
measure  from  fear  of  the  Romish  wolf,  plunged  into  intermi- 
nable quarrels  over  polity  and  the  metaphysics  of  theology — 
questions  which  proved  as  fatal  to  the  missionary  motive  as 
problems  of  criticism  are  in  some  quarters  to-day.  Xavier 
and  Ricci  and  Ruggieri,  the  missionaries  of  the  counter- 
reformation  in  the  East,  compounded  with  heathenism  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  nullify  most  of  the  essentials  of  Christian 
teaching,  and  finally  indulged  in  fatal  political  intrigue,  which 
resulted  in  their  expulsion.  Their  brethren  in  Canada,  Jogues 
and  Brebeuf,  likewise  carried  on  what  was,  after  all,  rather  an 
heroic  propaganda  of  Romanism  than  a  preaching  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

With  the  stirrings  in  the  nonconformist  churches  of  Eng- 
land in  the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  new  epoch 
opened.  Since  the  days  of  Carey,  of  Marty n,  of  Judson,  of 
Giitzlaff,  of  Heber,  the  missionary  movement  has  swept  on, 
decade  by  decade,  gaining  in  scope  and  tidal  propulsion,  until 
it  has,  in  our  day,  reached  the  most  remote  parts  of  the  earth. 
After  eighteen  centuries  of  confined  and  limited  existence, 
Christianity  is  becoming  cosmopolitan.  It  is  destroying  and 
superseding  all  other  forms  of  religious  behef.  It  is  the  last 
type  of  faith  which  is  to  appear  upon  this  earth.  We  have 
indeed  reached  a  stupendous  crisis  in  the  world's  religious  life, 
the  issue  of  which  must  be  either  the  glorification  of  Chris- 
tianity or  the  final  death  of  religion.  Successors  there  can 
be  none.  This  gives  to  our  time  a  religious  significance  far 
exceeding  that  of  either  apostolic  or  Reformation  era. 

*  "  Another  hundred  years  and  all  will  be  over.  The  gospel  is  despised. 
Asia  and  Africa  have  no  gospel.  In  Europe,  Greeks,  Italians,  Spaniards, 
Hungarians,  French,  English,  and  Poles  have  none,  either.  The  small 
electorate  of  Saxony  will  not  hinder  the  end."  (Quoted  in  Froude's 
"  Luther,"  p.  54.) 


' '  CHRIS  T  FOR    THE    WORLD''  225 

The  world-wide  spread  of  Christianity  imph'es,  of  course, 
the  enunciation  and  popularization  of  an  unapproached  and 
unassailable  moral  ideal  and  system.  It  means,  further,  the 
unification  of  the  race  through  the  agency  of  a  common  faith 
and  a  common  hope.  It  means  the  establishment  of  one 
moral  type  among  Anglo-Saxons,  Sikhs,  Slavs,  Hunanese,  and 
Basutos.  The  establishment  of  such  a  type  will  constitute  a 
final  argument  for  the  truth  of  Christianity  beside  which  the 
apologicB  of  book-writers  and  creed-makers,  as  well  as  the 
efforts  of  those  who  seek  to  commend  Christianity  by  paring 
away  its  supernaturalism  and  by  assimilating  it  to  "progres- 
sive "  opinion,  will  seem  the  veriest  trifling. 

The  modern  missionary  movement  is,  then,  an  undertaking 
admirable  and  important  beyond  all,  even  in  our  age  of  mul- 
titudinous activities.  It  is  without  question  unprecedented 
as  an  example  of  elaborate,  persevering,  and  extensive  volun- 
tary effort.  It  offers,  too,  illustrations  of  faith  and  of  obedience 
equal  to  any.  What  a  suicidal  plunge  is  that  into  the  vast 
yellow  ocean  of  eastern  Asia!  What  an  apparently  impos- 
sible undertaking  this  of  evangelizing  four  hundred  millions 
of  the  most  materialized  people  on  earth!  What  misgivings 
must  the  brave,  determined  march  into  the  night  and  gloom 
of  the  Dark  Continent  not  awake!  And  to  all  the  seemingly 
insurmountable  difficulties  abroad  are  added  the  continuous, 
persistent  ridicule  and  misrepresentation  of  a  secularized 
Christendom.  The  wisdom  of  God  is  still  the  foolishness  of 
men.  Christianity  in  its  phase  of  world-wide  expansion  is  as 
completely  misunderstood  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  its  inception. 
Many  have  dwelt  upon  the  blindness  of  the  world  at  large  to 
the  extent  and  importance  of  rehgious  phenomena  in  the  first 
centuries  of  this  era.  One  of  the  most  brilHant  of  living  his- 
torians has  said : 

"  That  the  greatest  religious  change  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind should  have  taken  place  under  the  eyes  of  a  brilliant 


226  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

galaxy  of  philosophers  and  historians  who  were  profoundly 
conscious  of  the  decomposition  around  them ;  that  all  these 
writers  should  have  utterly  failed  to  predict  the  issue  of  the 
movement  they  were  observing ;  and  that  during  the  space  of 
three  centuries  they  should  have  treated  as  simply  contempti- 
ble an  agency  which  all  men  must  now  admit  to  have  been, 
for  good  or  evil,  the  most  powerful  moral  lever  that  has  ever 
been  applied  to  the  affairs  of  men,  are  facts  well  worthy  of 
meditation  in  every  period  of  rehgious  transition."  * 

And  yet  they  are  facts  which  have  a  very  close  counterpart 
to-day.  The  contempt  with  which  Tacitus  spoke  of  "auctor 
nominis  ejus,"  in  the  famous  passage  in  the  "  Annals,"  is 
brother  to  the  scorn  which  breathes  through  every  utterance 
of  the  London  "Times"  and  of  the  New  York  "Post"  when 
missions  are  under  consideration,  and  is  not  unsuggestive  of 
the  spirit  which  many  Christians,  as,  for  example,  Charles 
Kingsley  in  certain  scurrilous  pages  of  "  Alton  Locke,"  have  at 
times  indulged.  If  this  is  true  of  Kingsley,  what  shall  we  say 
of  ihe  vilification  which  club-men,  Gymkhana  idlers,  globe- 
trotters, and  correspondents  turn  ceaselessly  upon  the  represen- 
tatives of  Jesus  among  the  heathen?  The  carnal  mind  is  in- 
deed enmity  against  God.  Nay,  more,  it  is  stupidly  bat-like 
in  its  vision  of  spiritual  things  and  in  its  interpretation  of  his- 
tory. While  minimizing  or  ignoring  the  patent  results  of 
missionary  labor  in  India,  in  Uganda,  in  Japan,  in  Polynesia, 
and  elsewhere — the  schools,  the  hospitals,  the  opium  refuges, 
the  leper  asylums,  the  zenana  enterprises,  the  rescue  work,  the 
prison-gate  efforts,  the  great  native  Christian  conferences,  the 
innumerable  self-supporting  native  Christian  churches — it  re- 
members to  forget  the  almost  geologic  deliberateness  with 
which  fundamental  religious  changes  occur.  It  forgets  the 
dim  eons  which  have  shaped  and  moulded  and  bound  the  fol- 
lowers of  Vishnu  and  Siva ;  it  forgets,  too,  the  nine  centuries 

*  W.  E.  H.  Lecky,  "  European  Morals,"  vol.  i.,  p.  359. 


'•  CHRIST  FOR    THE    WORLD"  227 

which  it  took  to  subdue  Japan  to  Buddhism,  and  demands 
from  the  hands  of  a  few  awakened  Christians  cataclysmal 
results  in  mere  decades. 

Yet,  if  neither  the  subUmity  of  project  involved  in  the  move- 
ment for  a  universal  Christendom  nor  a  knowledge  of  ac- 
complished result  nor  a  sense  of  historic  proportion  were  pres- 
ent, one  would  think  that  the  remarkable  concurrence  of 
events  which  marks  the  present  era  would  provoke  attention 
and  lead  to  a  conviction  of  the  import  of  the  situation.  For 
not  only  has  the  return  to  Bible  study,  so  characteristic  of  our 
time,  led  to  an  emphatic  reassertion  of  Christ's  missionary  in- 
junctions, not  only  has  the  reawakened  Hfe  of  the  churches 
prepared  the  way  for  missionary  enterprise,  and  not  only  has 
the  increment  of  wealth  for  the  prosecution  of  such  work  fallen 
to  Protestant  hands ;  our  century  has  also  witnessed  those 
great  political  changes  which  were  the  condition  precedent  to 
a  world  evangelization.  It  has  seen  an  enlargement  of  the 
moenia  mutidi  by  the  exploration  of  all  remote  and  hitherto 
unknown  parts  of  the  earth.  It  has  seen  those  regions  brought 
to  our  doors  by  the  extensive  use  of  steam  as  a  mode  of  motion. 
It  has  seen  the  opening  to  commerce  and  to  missionary  oper- 
ations of  countries  isolated,  dormant,  and  closed  against  for- 
eigners. It  has  witnessed  the  uninterrupted  passage  of  control 
over  dark-skinned  races  from  the  hands  of  the  Latin  nations 
and  from  the  influence  of  intolerant  clericalism.  It  has  wit- 
nessed the  decay  of  papalism  and  of  persecution  in  Cathohc 
countries.  It  has  witnessed  the  founding  and  growth  to  titanic 
power  of  new  Protestant  states  in  America  and  Australasia. 
It  has,  beyond  all,  witnessed  the  advance,  decade  by  decade, 
of  the  British  raj  throughout  the  earth — the  growth  of  a  new 
Rovia  imperialis  with  proconsuls  and  pretors  able  to  protect 
the  representatives  of  Protestant  Christendom  in  their  work. 
The  great  God  who  hangs  out  nightly  the  stars  in  heaven  does 
so  not  merely  because  they  serve  as  lamps  for  us.     Neither  is 


2  28  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

he  shaping  contemporary  history  solely  with  reference  to 
British  pride  and  "  British  interests."  The  "  weary  Titan, 
with  deaf  ears  and  labor-dimmed  eyes,"  as  Matthew  Arnold 
called  this  great  cosmopolitan  power, 

"  Bearing  on  shoulders  immense, 
Atlantean,  the  load 
Of  the  too  vast  orb  of  his  fate," 

is,  all  unknown  to  himself,  the  serf  of  God  preparing  for  and 
protecting  his  sons  in  their  work. 

Those,  therefore,  who  see  in  these  almost  cosmic  movements 
no  unity  of  divine  purpose,  but  merely  a  multiplication  of  the 
complications  of  international  politics,  have  indeed  seen  a 
great  light,  but  have  not  heard  the  voice.  To  Lucian  Jesus 
was  but  a  "crucified  sophist,"  and  his  followers  outcast  fa- 
natics. To  the  world  at  large  modern  missions  are  estimated 
in  much  the  same  fashion.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that 
those  who  are  so  oblivious  to  this  convergence  of  the  currents 
of  history  should  regard  with  either  interest  or  patience  the  testi- 
mony of  Scripture  as  to  the  importance  of  evangelistic  de- 
velopments. That  these  constitute,  according  to  Jesus'  own 
words,*  the  condition  of  his  return  to  earth  in  power,  is  some- 
thing of  which,  doubtless,  they  do  not  know,  or  know  only  to 
mock.  If  this  is  really  so,  the  final  estimate  of  those  engaged 
in  this  witnessing  will  be  very  different  from  that  now  cur- 
rent. 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  the  task  of  writing  Dr. 
Gordon's  Hfe  has  been  undertaken.  Were  it  not  for  the  fact 
that  he  was  one  of  the  very  foremost  figures  of  his  day  in 
America  in  the  agitation  for  a  world-wide  propaganda  of 
Christianity,  his  career  would  not,  perhaps,  be  of  such  distinc- 

*  "  And  this  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole  world 
for  a  testimony  unto  all  the  nations;  and  then  shall  the  end  come." 
(Matt.  xxiv.  14.) 


"  CHRIST  FOR    THE    WORLD"  229 

tion  as  to  require  particular  record.  He  would  be  remembered 
as  a  useful  pastor,  a  gifted  preacher,  a  friend  of  the  poor,  and 
a  man  of  exalted  saintliness.  His  labors,  however,  in  behalf 
of  missions  were,  during  the  last  decade  of  his  life,  incessant ; 
they  constituted  his  absorbing  interest,  his  inspiring  enthusiasm. 
In  journeyings  often,  in  labors  of  missionary  tours,  in  labors 
of  conventions,  in  labors  of  committees,  as  coeditor  of  the 
leading  American  missionary  review,  as  author  of  missionary 
literature,  as  pastor  of  a  church  unsurpassed  in  missionary 
efforts,  as  the  executive  head  of  the  denominational  missionary 
organization,  as  founder  of  a  training-school  for  missionaries, 
he  toiled  to  the  full  measure  of  his  strength.  Even  after  his 
death — suggestive,  indeed,  of  faithfulness  to  the  end! — there 
was  found  in  his  ulster  pocket  an  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  little 
blind  girls  of  Canton  who  live  in  the  slavery  of  enforced 
immorality ! 

The  year  1888  was  marked  by  greater  activity  in  this  line 
than  any  previous.  The  London  conference  gave  a  new 
impulse,  the  campaign  in  Scotland  new  opportunities,  and  his 
election  to  the  position  of  chairman  of  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union  new  responsi- 
bilities. In  the  seven  years  of  life  which  remained  to  him  his 
best  work  for  this  cause  was  accomplished. 

The  great  Centenary  Conference  on  Foreign  Missions,  con- 
vened in  London,  June,  1888,  holds,  even  in  these  days  of 
memorable  conventions,  a  place  of  preeminent  interest.  It 
was  a  gathering  in  the  best  sense  ecumenical.  Every  Protes- 
tant missionary  society  in  the  world  gave  to  it  its  adherence. 
Every  evangelical  church  having  any  agency  for  the  extension 
of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  was  represented.  Distinguished 
missionaries  from  abroad — Hudson  Taylor,  Bishop  Crowther, 
John  Wilkinson,  Dr.  Post,  Murray  Mitchell — gave  to  the 
gatherings  the  results  of  years  of  observation  and  experience. 
There  were  laymen,  too,  friends  of  missions,  whose  names 


230  ADONIKAM  JUDSON  CORDON 

command  attention  in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West— Sir 
William  Muir,  Sir  Monier  Williams,  Sir  Richard  Temple,  Sir 
AV.  W.  Hunter,  General  Phayre,  Sir  Robert  Cust,  and  Lord 
Northbrooke,  the  ex-viceroy  of  India.  There  were  promoters 
of  missions  present  like  Messrs.  Stock,  Broomhall,  and  Guin- 
ness. The  Vatican  Council  of  '70  was  the  last  and  complete 
expression  of  Romanism.  The  Chicago  Parliament  of  Reli- 
gions of  '93— that  strange  gathering  of  religious  and  irrehgious 
miscellanea— embodied,  directly  or  by  imphcation,  the  es- 
sentials of  "liberalism."  The  London  International  Mission- 
ary Conference  of  '88  exhibited  to  the  world  Christianity  in 
its  purest,  best,  and  most  useful  phase.  The  spirit  of  the 
gathering  was  beyond  criticism.  From  beginning  to  end 
there  was  no  friction,  notwithstanding  the  variety  of  denomi- 
national interests  represented.  The  divisions  of  Protestantism, 
so  much  dwelt  upon,  seemed  to  have  disappeared.  Dr.  Gor- 
don, who,  though  speaking  only  occasionally,  was  listened  to  with 
marked  interest,  said  very  pertinently,  after  contrasting  this 
spirit  of  comity  with  the  spurious  "  unity  "  so  often  demanded  : 

"  We  have  a  Bible  that  is  one,  but  that  has  been  translated 
into  at  least  three  hundred  languages.  Now  remember  that 
the  old  church,  that  shed  rivers  of  blood  to  prevent  one  church 
of  Christ  Jesus  being  translated  into  various  sects,  also  shed 
rivers  of  blood  to  prevent  the  Word  of  God  being  translated 
into  various  languages.  That  church  is  just  as  opposed  to  a 
polyform  Christianity  as  it  is  to  a  polyglot  Bible.  But  we 
have  both. 

"Are  we  not,  then,  to  look  for  a  reunion  of  the  church? 
I  cannot  dwell  on  this  point  long,  but  will  simply  say,  Yes; 
I  'beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  our  gathering  together  unto  him.^  That  will  be  a 
reunion  of  Christendom,  a  reunion  in  which  there  will  be 
included  nothing  '  that  defileth,  or  worketh  abomination,  or 
maketh  a  lie.' " 


'' CHRIST  FOR   THE    WORLD''  231 

The  problems  discussed  were  of  great  variety  and  delicacy. 
As  an  executive  in  the  management  of  extended  missionary 
interests,  Dr.  Gordon  listened  with  absorbed  attention ;  the 
reports  from  the  fields  filled  him  with  delighted  enthusiasm. 
He  could  think  only  of  the  great  review  which  closed  our 
Civil  War  as  veteran  after  veteran  came  to  the  front  and  re- 
lated his  struggles  and  victories  in  Africa,  in  Asia,  or  in  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific.  He  was  introduced  to  a  Moravian 
brother,  "a  man  of  humble  bearing  and  broken  English." 
The  remembrances  of  Herrnhut  welled  up  into  his  eyes  and 
rolled  out  on  his  cheeks  as  he  grasped  his  hand.  In  the 
auxiliary  meetings  following  the  conference — at  Mr.  Guin- 
ness's  East  London  Institute,  at  Association  Hall,  and  at  Mild- 
may — he  was  listened  to  by  great  throngs.  He  preached, 
too,  in  the  streets  and  parks  of  London  without  interference. 
At  the  Mildmay  Conference  he  enjoyed  the  fellowship  of  the 
choicest  spirits  of  British  Christianity.  With  brimming  eyes 
did  he  listen  to  the  wonderful  expositions  of  Hebrews  by 
Adolph  Saphir.  With  brimming  eyes  was  his  own  beautiful 
address  on  "  Union  with  Christ  "  received. 

The  conferences  being  over,  he  went  to  Paris  to  look  into 
the  work  of  the  McAU  Mission.  His  addresses  at  the  various 
halls  had,  according  to  the  testimony  of  an  eye-witness,  a 
powerfully  moving  effect  on  the  audiences  of  French  men  and 
women.  While  speaking  in  Paris,  an  urgent  message  reached 
him  from  representatives  of  the  Scotch  churches,  who  had 
heard  him  in  London,  begging  him  to  address  a  series  of 
meetings  which  had  been  arranged  in  Edinburgh  for  July  14- 
17  th.  These  dates  were  chosen  in  order  to  reach  the  univer- 
sity students  before  their  dispersion  for  the  vacation.  At  the 
cost  of  complete  alteration  of  plan,  he  left  for  Scotland  with 
Dr.  Pierson.  The  meetings  in  Edinburgh  were  of  great  power. 
The  large  Synod  Hall  was  filled  to  its  utmost  capacity.  As 
the  meetings  progressed  it  was  clear  that  the  tide  was  rising. 


232  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Before  the  conference  was  over  an  appeal  was  drawn  up  im- 
portuning Dr.  Gordon  and  Dr.  Pierson  to  make  a  tour  of  the 
principal  cities  and  towns  of  Scotland  in  behalf  of  the  mission- 
ary interests  of  Scotch  churches.  This  was  adopted  with  fer- 
vor, two  thousand  people  rising  en  masse  to  express  their  ap- 
probation as  soon  as  the  letter  had  been  read.  Then  followed 
a  laborious  but  fruitful  missionary  campaign.  Largely  at- 
tended meetings  were  held  in  Edinburgh,  Oban,  Nairn,  Elgin, 
Inverness,  Aberdeen,  Strathpeffer,  Dundee,  and  elsewhere. 
Everywhere  the  American  ministers  were  received  with  en- 
thusiasm; everywhere  their  words  made  a  deep  impression. 
Gordon's  allusion  to  his  Scotch  name  and  ancestry  excited 
warm  response.  "  We  are  getting  much  enjoyment,  too,  along 
with  this  unexpected  service  into  which  we  have  been  drawn 
by  the  importunity  of  our  Scotch  friends,"  he  wrote.  On  a 
lovely  day  he  visited  lona,  the  center  from  which  wide-reach- 
ing missionary  impulses  radiated  in  medieval  times.  The  day 
at  this  shrine  he  counted  one  of  the  most  inspiring  of  his  hfe, 
and  ever  after  St.  Columba  shared  with  Brainerd  and  Carey 
in  his  heart's  affection. 

On  his  retiu-n  to  America  he  was  elected  to  the  honorable 
and  onerous  position  of  chairman  of  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union.  He  had  al- 
ready served  as  a  member  of  this  committee  for  more  than 
seventeen  years.  In  his  new  capacity  he  was  to  guide  its 
dehberations  for  six  years  more.  A  minute  passed  by  his  as- 
sociates at  his  death,  after  adverting  upon  "  the  advantages 
which  the  prestige  of  his  honored  and  growing  name  brought 
to  the  Union,"  remarked : 

"  But  the  value  of  his  incumbency  was  enhanced  by  the 
unvarying  courtesy  of  his  demeanor,  the  combined  dignity 
and  affabihty  of  his  bearing  toward  his  associates,  the  clear 
knowledge  and  sound  judgment  which  he  brought  to  the 
elucidation  of  the  questions  involved  in  our  work — questions 


'' CHRIST  FOR    THE    WORLD''  233 

always  grave  and  often  intricate  and  perplexing— the  patience, 
the  faith,  the  mingled  moderation  and  energy,  and  the  untiring 
industry  of  his  service." 

This  work  was  the  most  taxing  in  which  he  engaged; 
nevertheless  none  was  nearer  his  heart,  p-or  he  was  no  per- 
functory official  who  dismissed  from  his  thought  the  whole 
business  of  the  committee  as  soon  as  the  meetings  adjourned. 
No  one  on  the  foreign  field  but  could  at  any  time  appeal  to 
him  for  the  most  intelligent  sympathy  in  his  labors.  "The 
best  prayer-book  is  a  map  of  the  world,"  he  said  once.  The 
denominational  mission  stations  in  Burmah,  in  Africa,  in  Chma, 
were  collects  in  this  prayer-book  to  which  he  often  turned. 
"  Instead  of  praying  for  the  Lord's  blessing  upon  our  mission 
fields  and  upon  our  missionary  brethren  in  general,  let  us 
get  a  hst  of  their  names  and  take  some  one  of  them  before 
the  throne  of  God  each  day.  Let  us  make  ourselves  so  far 
acquainted  with  their  circumstances  of  trial  or  success  that 
we  shall  have  definite  petitions  or  thanksgivings  to  make  for 
them.  Let  the  missionaries  be  reminded  to  send  home  specific 
requests  for  prayer,  and  let  them  be  taken  up  for  definite  re- 
membrance at  our  monthly  meetings.  For  ourselves,  we  have 
found  great  blessing  and  profit  in  going  through  the  mission- 
ary list  day  after  day.  The  heartfelt  solicitude  of  the  apostle 
to  the  Gentiles  nowhere  comes  out  more  manifesdy  than  in 
the  frequent  recurrence  of  that  saying,  'Without  ceasing  I 
make  mention  of  you  always  in  my  prayers.'  " 

He  was,  furthermore,  constantly  writing  letters  of  encourage- 
ment to  lonely  and  isolated  missionaries.  One  of  these  re- 
marks, "  In  intellectual  appreciation  and  heart  experience  of 
the  profoundest  truths  of  the  gospel,  I  owe  to  A.  J.  Gordon 
a  debt  next  to  that  I  owe  the  aposdes.  I  deem  him  the  be- 
loved apostle,  the  John  of  our  generation."  He  then  goes 
on  to  say,  "  His  fatherly  interest  touched  my  hfe  in  many 
ways  and  when  I  most  needed  a  touch  divine.     When  alone 


234  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  CORDOM 

with  my  wife  in  the  mountains  of  Assam,  I  received  from 
him  '  In  Christ '  and  '  The  Twofold  Life,'  with  the  autograph 
and  the  love  of  the  author  on  the  fly-leaf  of  each.  Words 
can  never  tell  what  these  two  books  were  to  us  in  that  moun- 
tain fastness."  Another  writes,  "  1  feel  the  Congo  Mission 
has  met  a  great  loss  in  his  death.  Oh,  that  some  one  might 
be  raised  up  to  enter  into  the  sympathies  and  hold  the  confi 
dence  of  the  missionaries  as  he  did!  I  remember  writing,  at 
the  suggestion  of  Brother  Hoste,  for  a  chapel  at  Lukunga, 
though  we  had  httle  faith  in  asking.  The  promise  of  help 
which  the  following  letter  gives  was  redeemed  to  the  full : 

"  '  My  dear  Brother  :  Your  letter  is  just  received,  and  I 
am  rejoiced  to  hear  that  you  are  well  and  hopeful.  Dear, 
devoted  Brother  Hoste,  of  whom  all  speak  with  such  admira- 
tion and  affection,  certainly  ought  to  have  a  chapel.  I  will 
talk  it  up  and  see  what  can  be  done.  Our  prayers  are  much 
toward  you  and  your  great,  dark  field,  where  the  open  sore 
of  the  world  is  awaiting  the  heahng  of  the  great  Physician. 
Your  position  is  an  enviable  one  considering  the  rewards 
which  belong  to  it  from  the  Master,  but  I  do  not  forget  also 
the  hardshps  and  trials  which  belong  to  it.  These  may  the 
Lord  give  you  grace  to  bear.  .   .   .'" 

At  another  time  an  iron  chapel  was  needed  at  Banza  Man- 
teke.  He  took  the  matter  up,  raised  the  money  in  his  own 
church,  and  cabled  the  order  for  its  immediate  construction. 
When  the  Congo  Mission  was  first  assumed  by  his  society, 
complications  arose  which  interrupted  the  channels  of  supply 
to  those  in  Africa.  In  this  crisis  he  himself  guaranteed  a 
shipment  of  provisions  on  order  at  Bywaters  in  London.  No 
wonder  that,  as  another  wrote  from  another  quarter  of  the 
world,  "  we  looked  to  him  as  to  an  elder  brother,  one  to  whom 
we  could  go  for  advice  in  critical  junctures,  upon  whose  con- 
fidence and  prayer  we  could  rely.  .  .  .  For  a  whole  night  I 
have  been  weeping  his  departure." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF    MISSIONS 

Missionary  administration — On  "  witnessing"  as  the  church's  chief  func- 
tion—  Education  vs.  Evangelization — Government  grants  to  mission 
schools — Philadelphia  address  on  "Decentralization" 

WITHOUT  doubt  Dr.  Gordon's  conviction  of  the  immi- 
nence of  Christ's  return  affected  his  advice  on  matters 
of  administration.  "  He  beheved,"  wrote  one  of  his  associ- 
ates on  the  board,  "  that  some  of  the  types  of  mission  policy 
prevaihng  were  formed  without  due  regard  to  what  he  thought 
a  prehminary  stage  of  missionary  operation,  and  that  this  view 
of  the  present  dispensation  as  final  practically  nullified  any 
expectation  of  the  Lord's  return.  With  many  people  the 
advent  of  civilization  and  a  broad  view  of  mission  work  are 
practically  identical.  Not  so  with  Dr.  Gordon.  He  believed 
that  the  gospel  was  to  be  preached  in  a  profound  sense  'as 
a  witness,'  as  a  provisional  stage  of  effort,  and  that  to  turn 
aside  to  various  forms  of  higher  education  and  to  other  semi- 
secular  methods  of  work  was  to  minimize  the  chief  function 
of  the  church  of  Christ  in  this  age.  He  entertained,  however, 
no  superficial  or  shallow  view  of  what  that  witness  included. 
He  believed  that  the  word  'witness,'  as  used  in  the  New 
Testament,  is  descriptive  of  the  profoundest  form  of  human 
effort  possible  to  the  Christian— effort  endowed  with  the  very 
power  and  energy  and  wisdom  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  His  con- 
ception of  the  witness  embraced  the  idea  of  witnessing  churches 
and  institutions.  He  believed  that  many  forms  of  quasi-mis- 
sionary enterprise  were  representative  of  a  partial  departure 

235 


236  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

from  apostolic  standards  and  New  Testament  conceptions  of 
evangelizing  the  world."  *  He  was  not,  however,  unmindful 
of  the  representative  character  of  his  office  or  of  the  constitu- 
ency behind  him  which  dissented  from  this  view.  He  sought 
accordingly  to  emphasize  those  phases  of  mission  work  which 
are  necessarily  acceptable  to  all.  Evangelism  he  considered 
beyond  all  the  proper  and  pressing  work  of  the  Union.  Pri- 
mary education,  too,  he  felt  to  be  a  legitimate  function,  in  that 
Protestantism  and  illiteracy  cannot  coexist.  But  the  higher 
education  ought,  he  contended,  to  be  a  development  of  the 
life  of  the  native  chiu-ch.  Its  superimposition  by  the  home 
board  he  considered  untimely  in  view  of  the  black  masses  of 
the  unevangelized.  With  the  policy  of  educating  heathen 
from  the  contributions  of  American  Christians  he  would  have 
nothing  to  do.  He  questioned  whether,  in  any  large  degree, 
conversions  followed  as  a  result  of  the  extensive  educational 
propaganda  which  is  carried  on  in  India  and  elsewhere.  And, 
apart  from  considerations  of  expediency,  he  denied  to  it  the 
spiritual  and  essentially  Christian  note  which  should  charac- 
terize missionary  operations.  He  compared  the  missionary 
professor  who  devotes  his  days  to  teaching  Brahman  lads 
English  literature  and  algebra  and  physics,  that  in  a  Christian 
atmosphere  they  may  be  attracted  to  Christian  truth,  to  the 
sacramentarian  who  hales  the  multitude  into  "  the  church  " 
that  they  may  by  its  intermediary  influence  be  saved. 

"  Has  this  dispensation  of  teaching,"  he  asks,  "  after  all, 
proved  really  helpful  in  preparing  the  heathen  mind  to  receive 
the  Word  of  life?     No  more,  probably,  than  a  gymnasium  in 

*  "  The  work  distinctly  appointed  for  this  present  time  is  the  gathering 
of  the  ecclesia,  the  called  out.  Not  that  we  would  question  for  a  moment 
the  ultimate  conversion  of  the  world.  When  '  that  which  is  in  part  shall 
be  done  away,'  and  when  'that  which  is  perfect  is  come,'  then  indeed 
shall  our  Lord  Jesus  have  dominion  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river 
unto  the  ends  of  the  earth."  (Article  "  Education  and  Missions,"  A.  J. 
Gordon,  "  Missionary  Review,"  December,  1893.) 


ON   THE   CONDUCT  OF  MISSIONS  237 

tlie  basement  of  an  American  church,  with  its  curriculum  of 
dumb-bells  and  vaulting-bars,  has  conduced  to  a  change  of 
heart  in  the  young  men  who  have  entered  therein.  The  tend- 
ency is  inevitable  for  these  preparatives  to  become  substitutes. 
Education,  by  all  means!  But  in  the  school  of  grace  the  law 
seems  to  be,  not  'know  in  order  that  you  may  believe,'  but 
'believe  in  order  that  you  may  know.'  Culture,  when  set 
forward  as  a  forerunner  of  Christ,  has  constantly  failed  to 
become  such,  because  it  lacks  the  humility  to  say,  '  He  it  is 
who,  coming  after  me,  is  preferred  before  me,  whose  shoe- 
latchet  I  am  not  worthy  to  unloose.'  It  being  true,  accord- 
ing to  our  Lord's  own  words,  that  the  Father  hath  '  hid  these 
things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  revealed  them  unto 
babes,'  it  cannot  be  the  missionary's  business  to  make  men 
wise  and  prudent  in  order  that  they  may  receive  the  gospel, 
but  rather  to  tell  the  wise  and  prudent  that,  except  they  re- 
pent and  become  as  little  children,  they  shall  in  no  wise  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

To  the  custom  of  receiving  government  grants  for  mission 
schools  he  was  likewise  heartily  opposed.  He  felt  that  there 
was  an  insidious  danger  in  this  bond  between  church  and  state. 
He  clearly  saw  that  there  can  hardly  be  a  conscience  other 
than  the  nonconformist  conscience,  since  state  religion  tends, 
by  a  natural  gravitation,  to  become  the  organ  of  expression 
for  officialism,  and  therefore  for  the  majority,  for  the  control- 
ling element  in  the  state,  and  for  the  almost  invariable  oppo- 
nents of  reform  opinion.  He  had  seen  how,  on  the  mission 
field,  the  government  grant  had  often  dulled  the  moral  sense 
of  missionaries,  making  them  wabble  and  trim  and  flutter  Hke 
a  pigeon  whose  brain  has  been  partly  removed.* 

*  As,  for  example,  in  the  case  of  the  Anglican  bishop  and  clergy  of  Cal- 
cutta, who  testified  recently  in  favor  of  the  continuance  of  the  state  opium 
trade,  and  certain  missionaries  in  the  last  Decennial  Conference  at  Bom- 
bay, who  deprecated  agitation  against  licensed  vice  in  the  Anglo-Indian 
army. 


238  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

"  The  stipend  rarely  fails,"  he  wrote,  "  to  assert  its  authority 
over  the  stipendiary ;  subsidies  are  almost  certain,  sooner  or 
later,  to  subsidize.  Therefore  let  missions  be  on  their  guard 
against  the  encumbrance  of  state  aid.  .  .  .  To  give  secular 
teaching  in  exchange  for  government  grants  may  be  an  honest 
transaction,  but  is  the  missionary  of  the  cross  commissioned 
for  such  a  business?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  missionary  so- 
cieties of  free  churches  and  established  churches  alike  have 
fallen  into  the  habit  of  receiving  government  grants  in  aid  on 
the  foreign  field.  The  system  of  secular  education  among  our 
missions  is  largely  related  to  this  usage.  The  wrong  principle 
—alliance  of  missions  with  the  state — has  led  to  what  many 
regard  as  a  wrong  result.  It  was  through  this  principle, 
gradually  and  almost  imperceptibly  adopted,  that  the  early 
church,  from  being  '  more  than  conqueror,'  became  more  than 
conquered,  since,  instead  of  Christianizing  paganism,  her 
Christianity  was  paganized.  The  law  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  not  the  law  of  the  kingdom  of  earth.  The  world's 
motto  is,  '  In  union  there  is  strength ; '  the  church's  motto  is, 
'  In  separation  there  is  strength.'  " 

For  many  years  Dr.  Gordon  represented  the  board  at  the  May 
meetings  of  the  denomination,  voicing  as  spokesman  its  appeals 
for  greater  activity,  and  presenting  the  results  of  the  year's  work 
to  its  constituency.  His  addresses  constituted  a  striking  feature 
of  the  yearly  gatherings.  "  Always  unique  in  character,  they 
were  given  without  apparent  self-consciousness,  without  the 
least  effort  to  make  a  great  impression.  They  were  the  over- 
flow of  his  mind  and  heart  respecting  the  biblical  conception 
of  missions  and  the  obligations  of  the  servants  of  Christ  to 
pour  out  their  lives  in  the  very  spirit  of  their  Lord  himself  in 
behalf  of  the  most  abandoned  and  abject  races  of  the  earth. 
There  was  a  quiet,  awe-inspiring  majesty  about  them  that  gave 
them  a  character  entirely  their  own.  Their  moral  and  spirit- 
ual force  was  always  invincible.     As  a  rule,  Dr.  Gordon,  in 


ON   THE   CONDUCT  OF  MISSIONS  239 

his  public  addresses,  rarely  adverted  to  the  details  of  policy 
or  to  his  own  special  views.  His  appeal  on  these  occasions 
was  to  those  instincts  and  convictions  which  are  common  to 
all  Christian  minds.  He  held  his  audience  to  the  profoundest 
yet  most  simple  and  primary  obligations."  * 

The  address  at  Philadelphia  in  1 892  was  one  of  exceptional 
power.  One  hundred  years  of  mission  work  had  been  finished. 
The  future,  with  all  its  hopes,  its  anxieties,  its  responsibilities, 
was  opening  a  new  volume  for  the  record  of  new  enterprises, 
of  new  dangers,  of  new  victories.  The  moment  was  of  a 
solemnity  and  import  which  Gordon  clearly  realized.  For 
nearly  two  hours  he  held  an  audience  of  four  thousand  people 
in  the  Academy  of  Music,  unfolding  to  them  the  conclusions 
of  twenty  years'  experience,  pointing  out  the  lines  which  the 
program  of  the  new  years  must  follow,  dwelling  on  the  por- 
tentous needs  of  the  world,  and  stimulating  his  hearers  to 
better  things  by  the  recital  of  the  triumphs  of  self-sacrifice  and 
of  missionary  heroism.  "  I  wanted  to  say  more  in  regard  to 
the  work  of  the  Moravian  missionaries,"  he  said  afterward, 
with  a  perceptible  tremor  in  his  voice,  "but  I  could  not  trust 
myself."     For  on  that  day  his  heart  was  full! 

A  part  only  of  that  address  can  we  quote  here,  the  part 
which  deals  with  the  policy  of  decentralization  in  missionary 
administration : 

"  I  am  to  speak  to-night  of  the  missionary  outlook.  Need 
I  say  how  much  depends  upon  an  intelligent  apprehension  of 
our  past,  in  order  to  an  intelligent  forecast  of  our  future? 
The  century  of  missions  is  closing;  and  what  inspirations, 
what  resources,  what  preparations,  what  opportunities,  has 
this  century  brought  to  us!  At  the  beginning  of  the  century 
there  were  only  two  or  three  missionary  societies  in  all  Prot- 
estant Christendom ;  now  there  are  upward  of  one  hundred 
such  societies,  whose  representatives  are  preaching  the  gospel 

*  Dr.  H.  C.  Mabie. 


240  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

to  every  nation  under  heaven.  Then  less  than  fifty  versions 
of  the  Scriptures  comprised  the  entire  work  of  Bible  transla- 
tion since  the  days  of  the  apostles ;  now  the  Word  of  God  has 
been  translated  into  more  than  two  hundred  and  eighty  lan- 
guages, and  the  whole  Bible  made  accessible  to  nine  tenths 
of  the  human  race.  In  the  beginning  of  the  century  j[^\2>  '^^• 
6d.  was  cast  into  the  treasury,  at  the  house  of  Widow  Wallace 
at  Kettering,  for  inaugurating  the  enterprise  of  modern  mis- 
sions ;  at  the  close  of  the  century  the  societies  which  have 
sprung  from  that  humble  beginning  are  contributing  eleven 
million  dollars  annually  for  evangehzing  the  heathen.  A 
hundred  years  ago  women's  missionary  societies  were  un- 
known ;  to-day  there  are  nearly  thirty  such  societies  in  Amer- 
ica alone,  with  twenty-five  thousand  auxiliaries,  contributing 
a  million  and  three  fourths  dollars  annually  for  spreading  the 
gospel.  At  the  beginning  of  the  century,  though  the  doors 
of  several  of  the  heathen  nations  stood  ajar,  hardly  one  had 
been  securely  opened ;  now  every  nation  under  heaven  is  to 
such  degree  accessible  that  missionaries  of  the  cross  have 
entered  in.  Well  may  we  write  the  word  '  opportunity '  over 
the  closing  decade  of  this  nineteenth  century ;  and  well  may 
we  be  admonished  that  opportunity  is  but  another  name  for 
importunity,  as  though  God  were  beseeching  us  by  every  open 
door  to  open  oiu-  hearts  and  to  open  our  hands  and  to  open 
our  purses,  that  we  may  worthily  meet  the  crisis  of  missions 
which  is  upon  us. 

"  Now,  measuring  our  fidelity  on  the  scale  of  our  opportu- 
nity, what  estimate  do  we  reach?  The  field  is  the  world,  and 
the  whole  world  is  accessible ;  and  in  all  the  world  we  have 
at  the  present  time  about  seven  thousand  missionaries.  But 
the  same  constituency  which  has  seven  thousand  missionaries 
in  the  foreign  field  has  a  hundred  and  twenty-seven  thousand 
ordained  ministers  laboring  at  home.     In  parishes  of  Great 


ON  THE   CONDUCT  OF  MISSIONS  241 

Britain  and  America  there  are  repeated  instances  of  two  or 
three  ordained  preachers  to  the  thousand  and  two  thousand 
souls;  while  it  is  estimated  that  every  ordained  foreign  mis- 
sionary has  a  parish  of  three  hundred  thousand  souls.  Does 
this  look  as  though  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls  were 
bearing  rule  in  the  diocese  of  the  world,  and  receiving  loyal 
obedience  from  those  who  are  under  him  ? 

"Again,  the  wealth  of  Protestant  Christians  has  increased 
so  enormously  during  the  century  that  the  evangelical  Chris- 
tians of  the  United  States  are  credited  with  possessing  thirteen 
billions  of  dollars.  But  do  they  possess  this  wealth,  or  are 
ihey  possessed  by  it  ?  is  the  question  which  must  be  raised 
when  I  tell  you  that  these  same  Christians  contribute  annually 
only  twenty-five  cents  per  capita  for  foreign  missions,  and 
that  this  contribution  is  computed  to  be  but  one  thirty-second 
part  of  one  per  cent,  of  their  wealth. 

"  In  spite  of  the  meagerness  of  our  contributions  of  men 
and  money,  missionaries  have  won  marvelous  triumphs.  The 
converts  from  heathenism  and  their  families  are  estimated  at 
three  millions — a  result  for  which  we  should  thank  God  and 
take  courage.  But,  according  to  the  statistics  of  Mr.  John- 
stone, in  his  '  Century  of  Missions,'  the  gain  in  heathen  and 
Mohammedan  population  has  been  seventy  times  greater  than 
this.  Considering,  then,  that  of  earth's  one  thousand  four 
hundred  millions  of  population  a  thousand  millions  are  yet 
destitute  of  any  saving  knowledge  of  Christ ;  and  considering, 
moreover,  that  every  success  already  won  constitutes  a  new 
call  for  laborers  and  contributions  and  evangelical  zeal,  is  it 
not  clear  that  the  demand  upon  us  in  the  closing  decade  of 
this  century  is  greater  than  ever  before?  And  what  shall  be 
our  answer  to  this  demand?  In  replying  to  this  question,  I 
may  disarm  prejudice  by  saying  that  I  repeat  what  many  of 
our  wisest  men  thought  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and 


242  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

what  more  think  at  the  close,  when  I  give  this  threefold 
challenge:  churches  to  the  front,  reserves  to  the  front,  pas- 
tors to  the  front! 

"  First,  in  regard  to  the  duty  of  our  churches.  In  a  very  able 
article  in  a  recent  number  of  the  '  British  and  Foreign  Evan- 
gelical Review,'  I  find  this  somewhat  startling  statement : 
'The  churches  of  Great  Britain  have  never  as  yet  made  for- 
eign missions  a  part  of  their  work.  The  great  missionary 
societies  in  England  are  all  outside  the  churches,  which,  as 
churches,  have  nothing  to  do  with  their  management  or  main- 
tenance. It  is  true  the  money  comes  from  members  of  the 
churches,  and  church-members  are  the  managers  of  the  socie- 
ties ;  but  all  that  the  churches  do  is  to  manifest  a  benevolent 
neutrahty  or  to  bestow  a  benevolent  patronage.  Missions  to 
the  heathen  are  not  made  the  work  of  the  churches.'  This 
statement  is  just  as  appHcable  to  America  as  to  Great  Britain. 
As  churches  we  are  not  directly  participating  in  the  great 
work  of  foreign  missions,  though  we  are  doing  so  by  represen- 
tation and  by  delegation.  And  yet  I  sincerely  beheve  that 
our  divinely  given  pohty  commits  us  to  such  participation. 
'  For  ye,  brethren,  became  followers  \i7nitators\  of  the  churches 
of  God  which  in  Judea  are  in  Christ  Jesus,'  says  the  apostle. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  church  at  Antioch  is  our  inspired 
model  as  a  missionary  church  as  truly  as  a  gospel  church. 
That  church,  under  the  immediate  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  set  apart  and  sent  forth  its  own  members  as  mission- 
aries of  the  cross.  And  I  have  the  strongest  conviction  that, 
if  every  church  would  do  the  same  to-day,  we  could  multiply 
our  missionary  activity  a  thousandfold. 

" '  But  single  churches  would  be  unable  to  undertake  such 
a  work,'  it  may  be  said.  '  How  many  do  you  count  me  for?  ' 
asked  the  Macedonian  general,  as  his  soldiers  expressed  their 
fear  of  going  into  battle  against  great  odds.  '  How  many 
do  you  count  me  for? '  asks  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  still  abides 


ON   THE   CONDUCT  OF  MISSIONS  243 

in  the  church  with  his  undivided  presence  and  his  undiminished 
power.  If  it  were  not  for  this  last  consideration  I  would  not 
broach  this  subject  at  this  time.  Christ,  in  the  person  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  dwells  in  every  church  in  the  fullness  of  his  pres- 
ence. '  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  in  my  name,  there 
am  I  in  the  midst  of  them,'  is  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  local 
church.  Christ  is  not  divided ;  he  has  not  distributed  himself 
among  his  churches,  giving  a  part  of  himself  to  each,  so  that 
only  by  a  union  of  all  the  churches  can  we  secure  the  presence 
of  the  whole  Christ. 

"  Herein  is  the  immense  difference  between  spiritual  force 
and  physical  force.  You  can  obtain  a  hundred  horse-power 
by  harnessing  a  hundred  horses  into  one  team ;  but  you  can- 
not secure  a  hundred  church-power  by  uniting  a  hundred 
churches  into  one  society ;  and  for  this  reason :  by  separate 
church  action  that  sense  of  weakness  and  dependence  is  pro- 
moted by  which  Christians  are  driven  to  take  hold  on  God ; 
by  united  church  action  that  sense  of  denominational  strength 
is  nourished  by  which  Christians  are  led  to  take  hold  of  one 
another.  My  brethren,  need  I  tell  you  that  responsibility  is 
the  mother  of  activity — that  necessity  is  the  spring  of  prevail- 
ing prayer?  Therefore  I  affirm  that  the  greatest  problem 
which  we  have  to  solve  is  that  of  putting  the  weight  of  spirit- 
ual obligation,  which  belongs  to  every  church  and  to  every 
Christian,  upon  every  church  and  upon  every  Christian.  And 
I  believe  that  our  divinely  appointed  church  polity  was  or- 
dained for  this  very  purpose,  and  if  rightly  carried  out  can 
effect  it  as  no  presbyterian  or  episcopal  government  can  do. 
By  a  wonderful  arrangement  of  natural  law  the  atmosphere 
presses  with  a  weight  of  fifteen  pounds  to  the  square  inch  on 
every  human  body.  Unite  a  thousand  people  in  one  body 
and  you  do  not  relieve  the  pressure  by  a  single  ounce  from 
any  single  individual.  Would  that  the  same  law  held  good  in 
regard  to  the  weight  of  moral  and  spiritual  responsibility! 


244  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  organization  and  association  tend  to 
take  off  the  pressure  from  the  local  churches  and  from  the 
individual  Christians,  and  our  vast  machinery  of  secretarial 
agencies  has  been  invented  in  order  to  restore  this  pressure  as 
best  we  can. 

"  President  Wayland,  speaking  on  this  subject  more  than 
forty  years  ago,  predicted,  with  the  wisest  missionary  states- 
manship, that  the  tendency  among  us  would  be  more  and 
more  for  churches  to  turn  over  their  missionary  obligation  to 
societies,  for  societies  to  turn  it  over  to  boards,  for  boards  to 
delegate  it  to  executive  committees,  and  executive  committees 
to  secretaries ;  so  that,  in  the  last  result,  the  chief  responsibility 
for  the  great  work  would  come  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  dozen 
men.  As  one  who  has  been  honored  for  twenty  years  to  stand 
under  this  burden  at  the  center,  I  can  say  that  I  do  not  desire 
to  see  an  ounce  of  it  lifted ;  but  it  would  be  a  new  era  for 
missions  if  the  same  pressure  could  rest  upon  every  local 
church  which  rests  upon  the  favored  twelve  men  at  the  center. 
Nor  do  I  for  a  moment  plead  that  our  noble  Missionary 
Union  should  be  set  aside  or  its  present  functions  curtailed. 
Without  such  organizations  the  great  missionary  movement 
could  not,  humanly  speaking,  have  been  inaugurated.  As  in 
the  building  of  railroads  there  must  be  a  combination  of  labor 
and  capital,  so  here  the  organized  union  and  cooperation  of 
all  our  churches  was  needful.  But,  the  railroad  being  com- 
pleted, it  is  adapted  for  private  traffic  as  well  as  for  public 
transport.  Such  was  evidently  the  thought  of  the  fathers  and 
founders  of  the  Missionary  Union,  as  shown  in  the  sixteenth 
article  of  our  constitution,  which  requires  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee to  '  afford  such  aid  and  encouragement  as  may  be  suita- 
ble to  such  individuals,  churches,  or  local  associations  of  Bap- 
tist churches  as  may  prefer  to  support  missionaries  of  their 
own  appointment.' 

"  If  we  could  only  come  to  this— that  each  church  would 


ON   THE    CONDUCT  OF  MISSIONS  245 

take  up  missionary  work  directly,  making  the  Union  its  com- 
mission house  for  the  transaction  of  its  business,  its  banking 
house  for  transmitting  funds,  and  its  Bible  and  publishing 
house  for  supplying  literature — who  doubts  that  we  might  do 
vastly  more  than  we  are  now  doing? 

"  Do  you  accuse  me  of  being  an  ideahst,  going  back  to  a 
remote  Antioch  for  an  example  instead  of  considering  the 
changed  circumstances  and  conditions  in  which  we  are  living? 
I  reply  that  it  is  the  actual  which  has  awakened  my  interest  in 
this  question  rather  than  the  ideal — the  exhibition  of  what  has 
really  been  accomplished  where  churches  have  undertaken 
direct  missionary  work. 

"  By  universal  consent,  Moravian  missions  hold  a  unique 
place  among  the  evangelizing  agencies  of  the  world.  When 
I  remind  you  that  the  Moravian  Brethren  send  one  out  of 
every  sixty  of  their  members  to  the  foreign  field,  that  they  are 
credited  with  raising  ten  dollars  per  member  annually  for  for- 
eign missions,  and  that  their  success  has  been  such  that  they 
have  three  times  as  many  communicants  on  the  foreign  field 
as  in  the  home  churches,  you  will  admit  that  they  deserve  the 
peerless  honor  which  has  been  accorded  to  them  by  the  his- 
torians of  missions.  What  is  the  secret  of  this  astonishing 
preeminence  among  all  the  missionary  enterprises  of  Chris- 
tendom? I  beheve  that  this  secret  is  told  in  a  single  sentence, 
which  I  take  from  their  own  official  declaration.  That  decla- 
ration says,  '  There  is  never  a  church  among  the  Brethren  with- 
out a  mission  to  the  heathen;  a?id  there  is  never  a  mission  of  the 
Brethren  which  is  not  the  direct  affair  of  the  church?  In  other 
words,  while  all  other  Protestant  bodies  carry  on  missions 
through  societies,  the  Moravian  Church  is  its  own  and  only 
missionary  society.  Dr.  Wameck,  of  Germany,  a  very  high 
authority  on  the  subject  of  foreign  missions,  believes  that  this 
fact  furnishes  the  real  secret  of  the  unique  position  and  the 
unparalleled  success   of  Moravian  missions.     Is  not  here  a 


246  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

question,  then,  deserving  the  most  serious  and  unprejudiced 
consideration?  Our  great  societies  were  needed  for  pioneer- 
ing the  modern  missionary  enterprise,  and  they  would  still  be 
needed  if  every  local  church  were  to  take  up  missions  for  itself 
— needed  for  conducting  and  perpetuating  the  work.  For, 
though  the  church,  as  the  body  of  Christ,  is  complete  in  itself 
and  can  develop  no  new  organs,  it  can  create  for  itself  the 
tools  and  implements  of  its  spiritual  husbandry.  Such  exactly 
are  missionary  boards.  But  we  need  constantly  to  be  re- 
minded that  our  strength  is  not  in  tools,  but  in  life ;  not  in 
outward  organization,  but  in  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  God. 

"  With  our  exaggerated  confidence  in  the  power  of  associa- 
tion, I  imagine  some  one  asking  impatiently,  '  Do  you  mean 
to  imply  that  one  church  acting  alone  can  do  one  one-hundredth 
part  of  what  a  hundred  can  do  acting  through  an  organized 
society?'  Giving  the  answer  of  history,  I  might  truly  say  that 
a  single  church,  acting  in  union  with  the  Holy  Spirit  and  in 
supreme  dependence  on  his  power,  can  do  as  much  as  a  hun- 
dred churches  depending  on  the  power  of  organization. 

"  I  make  good  this  affirmation.  Pastor  Harms,  of  Ger- 
many, because  he  could  get  no  sympathy  from  men  in  his 
missionary  idea,  was  constrained  to  turn  his  own  peasant 
chiu-ch  of  Hermannsburg  into  a  missionary  society.  He  was 
appalled  at  the  greatness  of  the  undertaking ;  and  he  tells  us 
in  graphic  language  how,  in  the  crisis  of  his  life,  he  prayed 
far  into  the  night  that  God  would  anoint  him  for  the  mighty 
enterprise.  At  midnight  he  rose  from  his  knees  and  said, 
'  Forward,  now,  in  God's  name,'  and  from  that  moment  he 
never  faltered.  And  what  was  the  result?  His  church  of 
poor  artisans  and  farmers  took  up  the  work  in  prayerful  co- 
operation with  their  pastor  ;  and  at  the  end  of  forty  years  they 
had  put  into  the  foreign  field  more  than  three  hundred  and 
fifty  missionaries,  supporting  them  in  their  work,  and  building 
a  ship  for  transporting  them  to  and  from  the  field ;  and  they 


ON   THE    CONDUCT  OF  MISSIONS  247 

had  nearly  fourteen  thousand  living  communicants  whom  they 
had  won  from  heathenism.  Is  there  one  of  our  great  mission- 
ary societies,  with  a  constituency  of  thousands  of  churches, 
which  can  surpass  for  its  first  forty  years  the  record  of  this 
single  missionary  church?  The  experience  of  Pastor  Gossner 
and  his  Bethlehem  Church  in  Berlin  is  hardly  less  wonderful. 
He  sent  out  and  maintained  one  hundred  and  forty-one  mis- 
sionaries— two  hundred,  including  the  wives  of  those  married 
— who  did  a  work  among  the  heathen  second  to  none. 

"  It  may  be  said  that  these  are  exceptional  men.  They 
were  so  only  in  this,  that  they  believed  implicitly  in  the  im- 
manence of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  church,  in  the  unlimited 
power  which  they  may  have  who  depend  upon  him  and  who 
throw  themselves  unreservedly  upon  him.  I  beheve  such  ex- 
amples as  these  are  given  us  as  divine  object-lessons  for  re- 
caUing  us  to  primitive  missionary  methods,  reminding  us  how 
much  greater  is  consecration  than  organization ;  how  much 
mightier  the  personal  responsibility  which  compels  us  to  take 
hold  on  God,  than  the  association  which  leads  us  to  take  hold 
on  one  another.  I  repeat  it,  then,  the  greatest  problem  which 
confronts  us  for  the  opening  century  is  that  of  distributing  the 
missionary  responsibility  which  has  become  congested  in  the 
official  centers.  As  touching  the  duty  of  giving  and  of  pray- 
ing and  of  going,  this  is  the  question  of  questions. 

"  If  an  obligation  of  half  a  million  annually  resting  on  our 
executive  board  only  registers  twenty-five  cents  a  year  on  the 
individual  pocket-book,  does  it  not  prove  the  necessity  for  a 
transference  of  pressure?  Think  how  some  insignificant  church 
enterprise,  like  the  purchase  of  a  new  organ  or  the  hiring  of 
an  incomprehensible  soprano,  unlooses  the  purse-strings.  Oh, 
if  Christians  would  only  lift  for  the  needs  of  a  perishing  world 
as  they  lift  to  supply  the  luxuries  of  their  own  church  worship, 
what  should  we  not  see  accomplished! 

"  And  praying,  hke  giving,  needs  the  pressure  of  direct  ob- 


248  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

ligation  to  sustain  it.  If,  somehow,  the  Hfe  of  the  missionary 
could  be  bound  up  with  the  life  of  the  local  church,  so  that 
his  success  should  be  their  success  or  his  failure  their  failure, 
what  an  impulse  it  would  give  to  their  intercessions!  Prayer 
is  the  last  thing  which  should  be  put  into  a  joint-stock  com- 
pany in  which  we  invest  general  supplications  for  all  men,  and 
from  which  we  take  out  only  general  dividends  with  the  church 
universal.  I  believe  that  God  designed  to  lay  the  burden  of 
the  whole  world  upon  every  church,  that  every  church  might 
thus  find  out  that  it  has  a  whole  Christ  with  whom  to 
bear  that  burden.  Then  would  it  not  only  pray  and  give, 
but  it  would  go  and  send  of  its  own  instead  of  depending 
on  a  central  bureau  to  attend  to  all  this. 

"  This,  then,  is  the  problem  to  be  solved.  If  my  suggestion 
toward  its  solution  seems  visionary  and  impracticable,  depend- 
ing for  its  demonstration  upon  examples  borrowed  from  remote 
times  and  places,  I  strongly  insist  that  it  is  most  practicable.  I 
think  you  must  acknowledge  the  vast  inequality  of  the  pres- 
sure, and  the  possibility  at  least  of  correcting  this  inequality, 
when  I  tell  you  that  I  know  of  a  single  church — by  no  means 
wealthy,  but  which  has  begun  the  enterprise  of  supporting  its 
own  missionaries  and  otherwise  coming  under  the  most  im- 
mediate responsibility  for  the  foreign  work — whose  contribu- 
tions last  year  equaled  the  combined  gifts  of  either  one  of 
three  New  England  States  with  their  hundreds  of  local 
churches.  At  all  events,  what  I  have  suggested  is  a  harm- 
less endeavor  toward  the  solution  of  a  difficult  problem ;  and 
I  pray  that  if  any  church  or  pastor  should  be  moved  in  loyal 
fellowship  with  our  Missionary  Union  to  take  up  this  plan,  he 
may  not  be  frowned  upon  as  an  innovator.  .  .  . 

"  And,  finally,  how  imperative  is  the  summons  for  pastors 
at  home  to  enter  with  whole-souled  consecration  into  the 
work  of  foreign  missions!  Until  the  great  body  of  ministers 
do  this,  making  foreign  missions  their  chief  business,  and  in- 


ON  THE    CONDUCT  OF  MISSIONS  249 

vesting  all  their  capital  in  the  business — time  and  money  and 
energy  and  influence — the  mighty  missionary  impulse  which 
is  now  called  for  will  not  be  gained.  I  believe  that  we  have 
now  reached  a  crisis,  and  that,  with  worldliness  and  rational- 
ism coming  in  like  a  flood  on  the  one  hand,  and  missionary 
enthusiasm  moving  out  Hke  a  flood  on  the  other,  we  must  in- 
evitably be  carried  in  one  of  the  two  directions.  I  say  world- 
liness and  rationalism.  These  are  but  the  two  names  of  one 
and  the  same  thing.  Rationalism  is  worldliness  on  its  God- 
ward  side,  as  worldhness  is  rationalism  on  its  earthward  side. 
As  invariably  as  pietism  has  been  the  mother  of  missions  at 
every  rebirth,  so  invariably  has  rationalism  stood  ready  to 
destroy  the  young  child  as  soon  as  it  has  been  born.  As  cer- 
tainly as  the  great  commission  was  sounded  anew  in  the  ears 
of  our  fathers  a  hundred  years  ago,  so  certainly  is  it  sounding 
anew  in  our  ears  to-day.  We  may  well  tremble  to  think  what 
had  been  the  result  had  William  Carey's  brethren  silenced  his 
missionary  appeal,  as  at  first  they  tried  to  do.  But,  by  the 
providence  of  God,  they  listened,  consented,  and  cooperated, 
and  the  result  is  that  the  English-speaking  race  has  become 
the  missionary  army  of  the  world. 

"  But  let  us  remember  that  there  were  Careys  before  Carey. 
More  than  a  hundred  years  before  his  day.  Baron  von  Weltz 
had  sought  to  rouse  the  German  Protestant  church  to  its  duty 
of  renewed  obedience  to  the  great  commission.  In  what 
pathetic,  almost  frantic  appeals  he  voiced  his  conviction, 
surrendering  his  title  and  his  wealth,  and  ofifering  himself  to 
go  to  any  part  of  the  world  if  only  his  brethren  would  take  up 
the  work  of  giving  the  gospel  to  the  heathen!  But  his  cry 
was  silenced,  Lutheran  clergymen  and  university  professors 
uniting  to  suppress  him  as  a  dreamer  and  a  fanatic  ;  and  so, 
with  broken  heart,  he  turned  from  his  church  and  his  country, 
saying  in  spirit,  '  Behold,  your  house  is  left  desolate,'  and  went 
forth  to  fill  a  solitary  missionary  grave  in  a  foreign  field.     Is 


250  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

it  accidental  that  such  an  age  of  dreary  rationalism  should 
have  followed  this  rejected  opportunity  in  Germany?  a  ration- 
ahsm  relieved,  indeed,  by  the  holy  lives  and  teaching  of  a  little 
company  of  Pietists,  like  Francke  and  Spener,  who  were  hated 
and  denounced  as  bitterly  as  Von  Weltz  had  been.  Is  it  an 
accident  that  Germany,  instead  of  being  the  chief  fountain  of 
missionary  influence,  as  it  might  have  been  had  it  not  rejected 
its  opportunity,  has  become  in  some  sense  a  missionary  field, 
the  co-reHgionists  of  Carey  now  supporting  missionaries  and 
evangelists  in  the  heart  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  order  to 
win  back  the  people  to  an  evangelical  faith  in  Christ?  Let 
us  be  afraid  of  lost  missionary  opportunities!  Such  a  one 
may  be  just  before  us.  The  church  which  is  not  a  mission- 
ary church  will  be  a  missing  church  during  the  next  fifty  years, 
its  candle  of  consecration  put  out,  if  not  its  candlestick  re- 
moved out  of  its  place.  As  ministers  and  churches  of  Jesus 
Christ,  our  self-preservation  is  conditioned  on  our  obedience 
to  the  great  commission.  Now  it  is  preach  or  perish !  evan- 
gelize or  fossilize!  be  a  saving  church,  with  girded  loins  and 
burning  lamp,  carrying  a  lost  world  on  the  heart  day  and 
night;  or  be  a  secularized  church,  lying  on  the  heart  of  this 
present  evil  world,  and  allowing  it  to  gird  you  and  carry  you 
whithersoever  it  will.     Which  shall  it  be?  " 


CHAPTER    XIX 

AS    MAKING    MANY    RICH 

The  faith  element  in  missions— The  Clarendon  Street  Church  as  a  mis- 
sionary church — Its  training  in  giving 

IT  will  be  readily  believed  that  the  voice  which  rang  out 
with  these  sentiments  in  the  churches  and  in  the  great 
gatherings  of  the  denomination  did  not  fail  to  advocate  in  the 
meetings  of  the  Executive  Committee  a  pohcy  of  continuous 
advance.  We  have  seen  with  what  earnestness  Dr.  Gordon 
went  over  the  country  in  behalf  of  the  Congo  Mission.  Every 
other  forward  movement  had  hkewise  his  unhesitating  support. 
This  was  not  bravado  or  an  irresponsible  recklessness,  though 
it  often  seemed  so  to  the  timid.  It  was  an  enthusiasm  of  faith 
conscious  of  the  opportunities  which  a  humble  cooperation 
with  God  in  his  work  opens  up. 

"  Is  Christ  the  chief  treasurer  who  supplies  the  missionary 
funds?  "  he  asked  in  an  article  on  "  The  Faith  Element  in  Mis- 
sions." "  Practically  there  is  a  very  wide  difference  of  opin- 
ion upon  this  point.  'And  Prudence  sat  over  against  the 
treasury,  watching  the  expenditures,  to  see  that  Faith  did  not 
overdraw  her  account,'  would  fairly  state  the  financial  method 
of  many  missionary  committees.  '  Faith  in  the  work  of 
preaching  the  gospel,  indeed,  but  in  administering  the  mission- 
ary exchequer  sound  business  principles,  if  you  please.'  So 
we  have  often  heard  it,  and  we  do  not  dispute  the  wisdom  of 
the  saying. 

"  But  here  we  are  conducting  the  King's  business,  let  it  be 

251 


252  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

remembered,  and  in  its  transactions  are  no  overdrafts  of  faith 
ever  allowable?  May  the  promises  of  God  never  be  taken 
as  collateral  in  this  business?  Is  the  Lord's  servant  forbidden 
to  hypothecate  the  bonds  of  the  everlasting  covenant  as  a 
security  for  a  missionary  contract  when  he  has  no  funds  in  the 
bank?  The  enterprise  of  missions  is  peculiarly  the  Lord's 
work,  and  as  such  has  guarantors  and  guaranties  back  of  any 
that  are  human, 

"  The  paradox,  '  Verum  est  quia  impossibile,'  which  Tertul- 
lian  uttered  concerning  doctrine,  it  is  time  for  us  boldly  to 
apply  to  action,  saying,  '  It  is  practicable  because  it  is  impos- 
sible;' for,  under  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit,  our  ability  is 
no  longer  the  measure  of  our  responsibility.  'The  things 
■which  are  impossible  with  men  are  possible  with  God,'  and 
therefore  possible  for  us  who  have  been  united  to  God  through 
faith.  Since  the  Holy  Ghost  has  been  given,  it  is  not  suffi- 
cient for  the  servant  to  say  to  his  Master, '  I  am  doing  as  well 
as  I  can,'  for  now  he  is  bound  to  do  better  than  he  can. 
Should  a  New  York  merchant  summon  his  commercial  agent 
in  Boston  to  come  to  him  as  quickly  as  possible,  would  he  be 
satisfied  if  that  agent  were  to  arrive  at  the  end  of  a  week, 
footsore  and  weary  from  walking  the  entire  distance,  with  the 
excuse,  '  I  came  as  quickly  as  I  could  '  ?  With  swift  steamer 
or  lightning  express  at  his  disposal,  would  he  not  be  bound  to 
come  more  quickly  than  he  could?  And  so,  with  the  power 
of  Christ  as  our  resource,  and  his  riches  in  glory  as  our  en- 
dowment, we  are  called  upon  to  undertake  what  of  ourselves 
we  have  neither  the  strength  nor  the  funds  to  accomplish. 

"  We  have  watched  with  the  deepest  interest  an  experiment 
of  enlargement  which  has  come  under  our  own  observation. 
A  missionary  treasury,  taxed  to  the  utmost  for  years  to  meet 
the  demands  upon  it,  was  assessed  at  one  stroke  an  extra  fifty 
thousand  dollars  annually  for  a  new  work  which  the  provi- 
dence of  God  seemed  to  enjoin.     Seven  years  have  passed 


AS  MAKING  MANY  RICH  253 

since  the  undertaking,  and  yet  the  treasury  has  kept  just  as 
full  through  all  this  period,  notwithstanding  the  extra  draft,  as 
during  the  seven  years  previous.  Certainly  this  outcome  does 
not  seem  like  a  divine  admonition  not  to  do  so  again,  but 
rather  like  a  loud  invitation  to  repeat  the  experiment  upon  the 
first  new  call.  And  now,  when  the  bugle  is  sounding  for  an 
advance  along  the  entire  Hue,  we  do  well  to  mark  the  signifi- 
cance of  such  experiments.  Our  Lord  does  not  say,  '  Be  it 
unto  you  according  to  your  funds,'  but,  '  Be  it  unto  you  ac- 
cording to  your  faith.'  If  he  sees  that  we  trust  him  for  large 
missionary  undertakings,  he  will  trust  us  with  large  missionary 
remittances.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  demand  great  things  of 
God  as  a  condition  of  attempting  great  things  for  God,  we 
shall  be  disappointed ;  for  that  is  not  believing,  but  bargaining. 
'  Said  I  not  unto  thee,  that,  if  thou  wouldest  believe,  thou 
shouldest  see  the  glory  of  God  ?  '  (John  xi.  40.)  Shall  we 
reverse  this  order,  and  believe  only  according  as  we  have  seen 
that  glory?  If  so,  he  will  give  us  little  credit  for  our  faith. 
Most  significantly  is  it  written,  '  Many  believed  on  his  name 
because  they  saw  the  miracles  which  he  did ;  but  Jesus  did 
not  believe  in  them.'     (John  ii.  23,  vide  Greek.)" 

This  was  the  theory  which,  in  the  administration  of  mission- 
ary interests,  Dr.  Gordon  advocated.  As  a  pastor  of  a  local 
church  supporting  and  contributing  to  the  executive  board,  he 
proceeded  upon  similar  lines.  The  faith  element  became,  as 
the  spiritual  life  of  pastor  and  church  progressed,  the  domi- 
nating factor  in  this  ministration.  In  the  early  years  of  his 
pastorate  it  was  customary  to  appoint  collectors,  who  went 
about  once  a  year  soliciting  for  the  missionary  fund.  A 
friendly  rivalry  always  existed  among  these.  To  secure  more 
than  any  other  collector  gave  one  a  pleasant  prestige  among 
the  friends  in  the  church.  The  regular  church  contributions 
were  made  once  a  month.  The  amounts  given  were  relatively 
small,  the  proportions  contributed  to  outside  missions  and 


a  54  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

charities  being  often  not  half  the  current  expenses  of  the 
church. 

Soon  after  Gordon  became  pastor  he  set  about  to  develop 
deeper  convictions  of  responsibility  in  this  direction.  Syste- 
matic giving  was  urged.  "  Milk  a  cow  every  other  day,  and 
you  will  be  sure  to  dry  her  up.  How  much  more  certainly 
will  a  church  be  dried  up  by  infrequent  giving!"  he  once  re- 
marked. Weekly  collections  were  advocated,  but  this  was 
felt  by  many  to  be  too  radical  a  step.  "  It  will  drive  people 
away,"  was  the  commonly  expressed  opinion.  And  so  for 
many  years  the  old  system  lingered  on.  The  pastor  did  not, 
however,  relax  his  efforts  to  create  new  standards  and  new 
ideals  of  giving.  In  a  series  of  sermons  on  the  subject  de- 
livered in  the  early  years,  he  said : 

"  Let  a  decree  go  out  from  the  Lord's  day  that  every  week 
shall  be  taxed,  and  you  will  soon  find  that  your  business  hours 
have  received  a  wonderful  consecration.  Instead  of  looking 
back  upon  your  six  working-days  as  a  band  of  marauders, 
each  making  way  into  the  irrevocable  past  with  its  plunder 
of  time  and  energy  and  devotion,  you  will  see  each  of  them 
marching  up  to  pay  its  tribute  to  him  who  is  Lord  of  the 
Sabbath. 

"Thus  the  Lord's  day  to  the  Christian  will  be  a  kind  of 
summary  and  epitome  of  his  week-days.  Instead  of  being  a 
periodic  exception,  a  fragment  of  holy  time  interjected  between 
certain  portions  of  secular  time,  it  ought  to  be  the  culmination 
of  all  his  week,  the  flower  of  his  days,  that  has  drawn  all  their 
finest  juices  into  itself.  Business  robbing  God,  a  ledger  pur- 
loining the  attention  that  belongs  of  right  to  the  Bible,  work 
trenching  on  the  rights  of  worship  in  family  or  private — all 
this  is  to  be  regretted  and  mourned  over.  But  if,  when  Sun- 
day comes  round,  it  puts  the  climax  on  this  fraud  of  holy 
things,  compelling  God  to  say,  *  Ye  have  robbed  me  in  tithes 
and  offerings,'  our  case  is  truly  pitiable.     For  it  is  to  indorse 


^IS  MAA'IXG  MANY  RICH  255 

and,  as  it  were,  reiterate  our  six  days'  remissness  by  a  seventh 
day's  defalcation. 

"What  are  we  to  do,  then?  Lay  by  in  store  each  Sabbath 
a  deposit  for  the  Lord.  Then  see  if  you  do  not  get  your 
heart  into  your  Sundays.  See  if  you  do  not  get  dividends  of 
grace  that  you  never  knew  of  as  faUing  due  on  that  day.  See 
if  your  whole  worship  is  not  pervaded  with  a  new  spirit  and 
power  thenceforth. 

"  How  thoroughly  this  rule,  if  observed,  would  fix  in  us  the 
habit  of  a  thoughtful  consideration  of  God's  mercies!  How 
profoundly  would  it  discipline  our  inward  spirit  to  the  truth 
that  we  are  only  pensioners  of  otu:  Father  and  almoners  of  his 
bounty!  The  Lord's  day  worship  would  be  more  sincere, 
more  hearty,  more  chastened,  if  we  came  to  it  always  from  a 
little  sanctuary  at  home,  where  we  had  settled  in  quiet  medi- 
tation the  claims  of  God  upon  us  and  apportioned  out  our 
sacrifice  for  him.  It  would  turn  our  charity  into  orderly  and 
systematic  service  for  the  Lord  who  bought  us  instead  of  leav- 
ing it  to  be,  what  it  so  often  is,  the  unripe  fruit  of  emotion  or 
the  heartless  price  which  we  render  to  the  demands  of  custom 
or  respectability. 

"  I  would,  therefore,  that  we  could  bring  ourselves  to  a  lit- 
eral and  whole-hearted  conformity  to  this  apostoHc  rule, 
'  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by 
at  home  [this  the  words  mean  literally]  as  God  hath  prospered 
him.'  Here  is  a  kind  of  family  devotion,  an  act  of  private 
and  household  worship,  in  preparation  for  the  service  of  God's 
house.  If  it  were  habitual  with  us  it  would,  I  am  sure,  settle 
all  our  difficulties  in  regard  to  this  department  of  our  Christian 
service.  The  calm  hour  of  retrospection  on  the  Lord's  day 
morning,  wherein  all  the  mercies  of  the  week  should  be  made 
to  pass  before  the  memory ;  the  mind  that  has  been  busy  for 
itself  now  sitting  for  God  at  the  receipt  of  custom  and  taking 
tribute  from  all  the  week-day  blessings ;  gratitude  summing  up 


256  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  account  and  directing  the  obedient  worshiper  how  much 
to  carry  with  him  to  the  sanctuary — if  this  were  our  method, 
there  would  be  great  inequality  in  our  contributions,  indeed, 
since  the  degrees  of  human  prosperity  are  infinitely  various; 
but  there  would  be  perfect  adjustment  of  charity  to  necessity, 
since  the  returns  would  be  according  to  God's  providence  and 
not  according  to  man's  caprice.  In  that  providence,  summing 
up  all  its  variations,  there  is  a  perfect  equilibrium  between 
man's  ability  to  give  and  man's  necessity  of  receiving." 

As  the  years  passed  on,  and  as  the  needs  and  opportunities 
of  foreign  work  became  more  deeply  impressed  upon  him,  he 
labored  with  increased  zeal  to  educate  his  people  in  giving  and 
to  stimulate  their  self-denial.  He  would  make  special  appeals, 
the  strain  of  which  upon  himself  was  to  the  last  degree  taxing. 
He  urged  immediate  giving,  placing  in  strong  contrast  post- 
mortem and  present-day  benevolence.  "  Is  it  not  distinctly 
affirmed  in  Scripture  that  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  deeds  done 
in  his  body?  "  he  would  say.  "  Why,  then,  should  Christians  so 
industriously  plan  that  their  best  deeds  should  be  done  after 
they  get  out  of  the  body?  Is  there  any  promise  of  recom- 
pense for  this  extra  corpus  benevolence?  And,  after  all,  these 
benevolences  of  the  dead  hand  are  usually  nullified.  By  a 
strange  irony  of  custom  we  call  a  man's  legacy  his  '  will ' ;  it 
is  really  too  frequently  an  ingenious  contrivance  for  getting 
one's  will  defeated." 

He  urged  his  people,  too,  to  limit  to  the  lowest  figure  pos- 
sible the  expenditures  on  their  own  worship.  "  Ecclesiastical 
luxuries  "  always  irritated  him.  "  If  the  angels  are  invisible 
spectators  of  the  church,"  he  said,  "  what  must  their  impres- 
sion of  our  sanctuary  self-indulgence  not  be!  Can  we  not 
easily  imagine  them  shutting  their  ears  to  these  voluptuous 
strains  and  holding  their  noses  at  these  sickening  odors  of 
Easter   flowers,    and    eagerly    searching   through   the    whole 


AS  MAKING  MANY  RICH  257 

elaborate  scene  that  they  may,  perchance,  'rejoice  over  one 
sinner'  bowing  in  the  dust  of  repentance?"  Neither  did  he 
stop  here.  Many  times  he  notified  the  standing  committee 
of  the  church  that  he  did  not  need  or  ask  for  the  salary  which 
he  received,  and  urged  them  finally  to  give  him  no  fixed 
amount,  but  whatever  the  people  might  choose.  This  was 
never  done ;  yet  his  personal  contributions  to  missions  were 
so  frequent  and  so  large  as  to  lead  virtually  to  the  same  result. 
"  If  it  be  asked,  '  How  about  costly  ministers?'  "  he  said  once, 
when  speaking  on  church  administration,  "  we  will  not  wince 
under  the  question.  '  Even  so  hath  the  Lord  ordained  that 
they  which  preach  the  gospel  should  live  of  the  gospel.'  But 
this  can  signify  no  more  than  a  humble  and  modest  support. 
It  gives  no  warrant  for  sumptuous  salaries  or  palatial  parson- 
aces  or  the  accumulation  of  clerical  fortunes.  Is  not  the 
teaching  of  ecclesiastical  history  sufficiently  solemn  on  this 
point?  And  are  there  not  tendencies  visible  among  the  min- 
istry in  our  great  cities  which  should  occasion  deep  heart- 
searching?  Like  priest,  like  people!  We  have  no  doubt 
that  our  missionary  contributions  would  soon  reach  the  high- 
water  mark  if  in  every  pulpit  the  Christ-like  humility  of  be- 
coming poor  in  order  to  make  many  rich  should  reach  the 
low- water  mark." 

Year  by  year  the  contributions  of  the  church  reached  higher 
points  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  proportion  of  wealthy  mem- 
bers was  steadily  declining.  In  the  last  five  years  remarkable 
results  in  this  line  were  attained.  There  had  been  a  cumula- 
tive education  which  was  now  yielding  its  fruits.  Giving  was, 
furthermore,  made  by  both  pastor  and  people  the  subject  of 
special  prayer.  Direct  appeals,  with  all  that  they  implied  of 
exhausting  anxiety,  were  a  thing  of  the  past.  "  I  am  tempted 
never  to  beg  a  cent  for  God  again,  but  rather  to  spend  my 
energy  in  getting  Christians  spiritualized,  assured  that  they 
will  then  become  liberalized,"  he  wrote ;  and  again :  "  Experts 


258  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

in  such  matters  say  that  a  bottle  of  wine  that  cannot  throw 
out  its  own  cork  is  rarely  good  for  much.  Certainly  a  Chris- 
tian's prayers  and  gifts  and  testimonies  are  of  little  value  if 
they  do  not  come  forth  by  the  effervescence  of  his  own  in- 
ward spiritual  joy.  For  one,  I  am  tired  of  using  the  pulpit 
corkscrew  to  draw  out  of  Christians  the  offerings  and  prayers 
and  service  which,  to  be  of  real  value,  ought  to  be  spontane- 
ous. I  shall  continue  to  pray  and  persuade  and  plead,  but  I 
shall  not  come  begging  you  to  do  your  duty.  '  My  people 
shall  be  willing  in  the  day  of  my  power,'  says  the  Lord." 

Statements  were  made  of  the  needs  of  fields.  Missionaries 
and  Christian  workers  were  constantly  invited  to  present  their 
causes.  When  large  contributions  were  required,  the  situation 
would  be  presented  and  the  people  urged  to  go  to  their  homes 
and  consider  prayerfully  their  personal  accountability.  Some- 
times several  weeks  intervened  before  the  collection  was  taken, 
in  order  that  the  full  import  and  responsibihty  might  be  felt, 
and  that  the  giving  might  not  be  prompted  by  a  mere  impulse 
or  by  an  unhealthy,  feverish  enthusiasm.  The  results  were 
extraordinary.  Money  came  often  from  wholly  unexpected 
sources.  Thus  when  the  contribution  for  the  Centenary  Mis- 
sionary Fund  was  made  (a  contribution  which  amounted  to 
the  aggregate  benevolent  contributions  of  the  first  four  years 
of  Gordon's  pastorate),  a  gift  of  five  hundred  dollars  was  sent 
in  by  one  unconnected  with  the  church  or  denomination  and 
wholly  unknown  to  the  members.*     The  outside  gifts  of  the 

*  "  I  am  glad  to  get  the  good  tidings  of  you  contained  in  your  letter 
and  circular.  Especially  do  I  rejoice  to  know  of  your  interest  in  the  great 
theme— the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  am  now  more  and  more  per- 
suaded that  the  greatest  things  are  possible  if  only  we  have  his  power 
resting  upon  us.  I  have  seen  such  a  demonstration  in  my  church  last 
year  as  I  never  witnessed  before.  We  met  morning  after  morning  in  the 
early  year  simply  to  pray  for  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  were 
looking  for  a  revival.  When  I  made  my  plea  for  foreign  missions,  I 
astonished  my  conservative  brethren  by  asking  ten  thousand  dollars  this 


AS  MAKING  MANY  RICH  259 

church,  chiefly  to  missions,  amounted  from  1890  to  1895  to 
nearly  eighty-five  thousand  dollars.  The  influence  of  this  ex- 
ample upon  the  Baptist  churches  at  large  was,  according  to 
the  testimony  of  the  Executive  Board,  very  great  and  very 
salutary. 

year  for  our  contribution.  Only  a  few  wealthy  men  among  us,  and  they 
not  likely  to  do  largely.  But  when  the  collection  was  gathered  twenty 
thousand  dollars  came,  nobody  asked,  no  solicitation  made.  It  was  sim- 
ply a  great  impulse  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  astonishment  of  all  still  continues. 
Now  is  coming  a  gracious  ingathering  of  souls." 


CHAPTER  XX 


DRILLING    THE    RECRUITS 


Establishment  of  the  Boston  Missionary  Training-school— Administration 
on  faith  principles — The  assault  on  the  school — Dr.  Gordon's  reply 
— "  Short-cut  methods  " 

IN  the  winter  of  '89  a  new  agency  was  started  for  the  fur- 
therance of  evangehstic  work  throughout  the  earth.  In 
various  ways  Dr.  Gordon  had  been  made  conscious  of  the 
stirrings  which  were  profoundly  moving  men  in  the  common 
walks  of  life  to  missionary  service.  He  had  noticed  also,  with 
sorrow,  the  deficit  of  laborers  for  certain  difficult  fields. 

"  In  Africa,"  he  wrote  in  a  letter,  "  we  nearly  forfeited  our 
opportunity  for  want  of  men.  I  determined,  therefore,  to  do 
what  I  might  to  find  them  for  that  field.     We  have  learned 

what  such  men  can  do  from  the  example  of ,  who  has 

been  in  Africa  three  years  and  has  proved  a  master  mission- 
ary. The  sum  of  my  wisdom  on  this  point  is  what  I  have 
learned  at  the  Missionary  Board.  I  think  of  those  whom  we 
hesitated  over  and  at  first  rejected  because  of  a  want  of  the 
qualifications  which  we  considered  of  first  importance.  And 
then  to  see  how  God  has  rebuked  us  by  showing  how  won- 
derfully he  could  use  them!  I  must  speak  in  confidence,  but 
that  is  the  history  of  three  within  my  memory,  every  one  of 
whom  now  stands  as  a  confessed  leader  in  his  field.  I  think 
that  I,  for  one,  have  learned  the  lesson,  'What  God  has 
cleansed,  call  not  thou  common  or  unclean.'     The  experience 

260 


DRILLING    THE   RECRUITS  26 1 

of  years  has  demonstrated  that  there  are  scores  of  men,  from 
thirty  to  forty  years  of  age,  who  hear  the  call  to  missionary 
service  at  home  or  abroad.     What  shall  be  done  for  such? 
This  is  a  question  over  which  I  am  more  sad  than  hopeful. 
It  is  not  easy  to  persuade  them  that  they  may  do  acceptable 
service  for  the  Lord,  and  besides  this,  there  is  the  humiliation 
of  the  'short-cut'  stigma  now  on  so  many  lips.     Altogether, 
it  is  hard  to  inspire   them  with  confidence.     Well,  may  the 
Lord  direct  us  all  into  the  perfect  knowledge  of  his  will,  and 
make  us  ready  to  do  that  will  as  it  shall  be  revealed  to  us.  .  .  ." 
After  much  prayer  and  long  consideration,  the  Boston  Mis- 
sionary Training-school  was  opened  in  the  old  Bowdoin  Square 
Church,    Its  aim  was  to  exercise  men  and  women  in  practical 
religious  work  in  the  neglected  parts  of  the  city,  and  to  fur- 
nish them  with  a  thoroughly  biblical  training.     For  this  project 
there  were  high  precedents.     In  a  volume  pubhshed  later* 
Dr.  Gordon  described  the  extraordinary  work  accomplished 
on  these  lines  by  Pastors  Harms  and  Gossner.     The  results 
which  attended  the  labors  of  these  pioneers  doubtless  consti- 
tute an  important  plea  justificatory,  if  such  is  required,  for  the 
policy  of  providing,  as  Gordon  phrased  it,  "  plain  men  with 
a  plain  outfit."     "  It  is  the  sacrilege  of  Christianity,"  so  he 
writes,  "that  the  church  has  so  often  undertaken  to  manu- 
facture missionaries  by  priestly  ordinatto7i  or  by  literary  train- 
ing.    The  prerogative  of  fm-nishing  the  ministry  for  his  own 
church  is  subUmely  accorded  to  Christ  alone.     It  is  his  oflfice 
to  give  the  various  orders  of  the  ministry,  ours  to  ask  for  them 
and  to  receive  and  recognize  them  when  sent."     To  furnish 
preparation  for  those  who  were  thus  burdened  with  a  divine 
call— the  laymen  desirous  of  doing  evangelistic  work,  whom 
the  seminaries  seem  hardly  to  care  to  train,  the  women  who 
hoped  to  undertake  zenana  work  abroad  or  slum  work  at 
home,  the  Christian  engaged  during  the  day  at  ledger  or  in 
*  "  The  Holy  Spirit  in  Missions." 


262  ADOXIRAM  JUDSOX  GORDON 

shop,  who  might  wish  to  obtain  evenings  a  systematic  know- 
ledge of  the  Bible,  the  candidate  for  the  foreign  field  of  ad- 
vanced age  and  slight  resources— in  short,  to  supplement  the 
work  and  to  enlarge  the  constituency  of  the  seminary  by  estab- 
lishing a  sort  of  seminary  extension,  this  enterprise  was  cau- 
tiously and  humbly  launched. 

The  move  was  made  not  without  much  hesitation.  Indeed, 
it  would  never  have  been  made  at  all  except  from  a  feeling  of 
divine  constraint.  A  burden  of  this  character  is  not  assumed 
lightly  by  a  man  whose  hands  are  full.  That  Gordon  consid- 
ered it  the  Lord's  work  is  evident  from  the  distinct  way  in 
which,  as  the  condition  precedent  to  his  own  participation  in 
it,  he  required  of  Him  the  supply  of  all  its  pecuniary  needs. 
To  those  of  the  committee  who  brought  out  at  the  first  meet- 
ing httle  subscription  books  with  the  purpose  of  sohciting  funds, 
he  gave  a  point-blank  refusal.  He  "  declined  once  for  all  to 
make  the  Lord  Jesus  a  pauper,"  and  refused  to  allow  any  con- 
nected with  the  undertaking  to  "  wait  in  rich  men's  counting- 
rooms,  hat  in  hand,"  for  subscriptions  to  the  Lord's  work.  In 
a  letter  engaging  an  instructor  he  wrote,  "  Of  course  we  begin 
without  funds,  depending  on  the  Lord  for  help ;  but  we  shall 
try  to  look  after  our  fellow-helpers." 

In  continuous,  strenuous,  unremitting  prayer,  however, 
there  was  no  slackening ;  and  the  prayers  were  not  unhonored. 
From  the  inception  of  the  enterprise  to  the  present  time  its  needs 
have  been  invariably  provided  for.  To  recount  the  numerous 
incidents  illustrating  the  reality— the  concrete,  definite,  prov- 
ing reaUty — of  answer  to  prayer,  would  be  here  impossible. 
Money  was  sent  from  entirely  unexpected  quarters.  On  one 
occasion,  for  example,  a  large  wooden  box  came  by  express 
from  a  back  town  in  Indiana  — evidently  from  one  who  did 
not  venture  to  trust  the  banks  or  the  government  to  transmit 
his  funds — containing  a  great,  bulky  roll  of  one-  and  two-dol- 
lar bills,  perhaps  the  frugal  saving  of  years.     Again,  an  en- 


DRILLING   THE  RECRUITS  263 

velop  was  handed  the  treasurer  by  an  unknown  person,  which 
was  found  on  opening  to  contain  four  one-hundred  dollar 
bills.  The  donor  has  not  been  seen  since.  At  another  time, 
when  the  needs  of  the  school  were  unusually  pressing,  Dr.  Gor- 
don was  in  his  study  asking  of  the  Lord  some  token  of  his 
watch-care  and  of  his  continued  provision.  On  reaching 
home  he  found  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  had  been  left 
by  a  stranger,  one  who,  as  it  was  afterward  learned,  had  been 
healed  in  answer  to  prayer,  and  who  was  now  determined  to 
give  even  out  of  poverty  to  the  important  work  of  preparing 
men  and  women  for  a  missionary  life. 

Such  instances— and  there  are  many  others  in  the  outline 
handed  to  the  writer— are  not  unique.  They  are  the  natural 
sequence  of  the  prayer  of  faith  the  world  over.  Like  cause 
has  produced  like  effects  in  the  work  of  MuUer,  of  Spurgeon, 
of  Guinness,  of  Simpson,  of  Christlieb,  of  Hudson  Taylor,  of 
Gordon.  If  the  Vine  is  interested  in  the  life  of  the  branch,  it 
must  be  even  more  so  in  the  prosperity  of  the  fruit.  It  is  not 
supposable  that  He  would  refuse  to  it  the  life-giving  sap  through 
the  agency  of  which  it  can  alone  be  filled  and  developed. 
"  How  long  do  you  expect  to  carry  on  this  work?"  was  fre- 
quently asked.  "  Until  the  Lord  forgets  to  supply  its  needs," 
was  the  unfailing  answer.  And  the  Lord  never  forgot.  We 
all  remember  Sancho  Panza,  hanging  desperately  from  the 
window  all  the  night  long,  his  toes  within  three  inches  of  the 
ground,  his  forehead  beaded  with  perspiration,  in  abject  terror 
of  the  supposed  abyss  beneath.  A  parable,  truly,  of  most 
Christians,  and  a  type  of  the  conduct  of  many  Christian  insti- 
tutions! Here  was  one,  however,  who  had  dropped  and  had 
found  beneath  him  the  great  round  globe  of  God's  care. 

The  new  work  was  not  begun  without  serious  trial  and  op- 
position. Hardly  were  the  doors  of  the  unobtrusive  and 
modest  institute  opened  before  the  assault  began.  Cold  con- 
troversies, like  cold  dishes,  leave  so  disagreeable  a  taste  that 


264  ADONIRAM  JVDSON  GORDoM 

one  would  willingly  pass  them  by.  Yet  there  is  a  lesson  in  the 
very  unaccountableness  of  the  storm  of  criticism  which  followed. 
In  the  church  to  which  both  critics  and  criticized  belonged 
there  is  supposed  to  be  complete  freedom  of  action.  7'he 
ideal  of  the  statesman,  local  self-government,  is  here,  as  hardly 
elsewhere,  fully  attained.  Yet  this  happy  absence  of  a  cen- 
tral authority  is  a  standing  temptation  to  men  of  a  pontifical 
spirit  to  assert  themselves  and  to  adopt  the  principle,  Ubi  Petrus 
ibi  eccksia,  substituting,  consciously  or  not,  their  own  names 
for  Peter's.  This  is  especially  true  of  those  who  are  intrusted 
with  the  management  of  the  denominational  press.  The  ex- 
cathedra  utterance  is  heard  quite  as  loudly  from  behind  the 
roll-top  desk  of  the  editor  as  from  the  recesses  of  an  ecumeni- 
cal council.  Baron  Bunsen,  so  his  biographer  tells  us,  was 
wont  to  have  by  his  bedside  a  candle-extinguisher  wrought  in 
the  shape  of  a  Jesuit  padre,  who  very  properly  and  signifi- 
cantly, we  may  imagine,  rejoiced  in  his  function  of  putting  out 
lights.  The  editors  of  certain  religious  weeklies  would  have 
made  equally  suggestive  figures.  What  was  worse,  in  the  pres- 
ent case  Dr.  Gordon's  assailants  seem  to  have  been  very  much 
of  the  disposition  of  John  Lilburn,  the  Puritan,  of  whom  it  was 
said  that,  if  he  could  get  no  one  to  fight  with  him,  he  would 
set  the  John  against  the  Lilburn  and  so  precipitate  a  quarrel. 
Now  Gordon  was  wont  to  say,  in  speaking  of  the  training 
of  humble  men  for  Christian  work,  that  "  he  preferred  a  little 
man  with  a  great  gospel  to  great  men  with  a  little  gospel." 
Whatever  the  reason — whether  the  worship  of  our  American 
fetish,  education,  or  that  temper  of  mind  which  stickles  for 
the  conventional  method  and  for  a  lawn-tied  uniformity,  as  of 
bobbins  in  a  cotton-mill ;  whether  it  was  the  spirit  which  accepts 
nothing  unless  "  hammered  on  its  own  anvil "  and  having 
its  own  die,  will  take  no  coin  save  that  with  the  image  and 
superscription  of  an  accepted  system — whatever  the  cause  at 
bottom,  it  is  certain  that  these  great  men  of  the  press  did  furi- 


DRILLING    THE  RECRUITS  265 

ously  assail  the  champion  of  the  "  Httle  man."  To  reah'ze  the 
bitterness  with  which  the  school  was  attacked  one  has  only  to 
turn  back  the  files  of  the  New  York  "  Examiner  "  to  the  win- 
ter of  '89.  "The  short-cut  plan,"  a  characterization  pecu- 
liarly pleasing  to  these  critics,  was  denounced  as  "a  method 
fraught  with  grave  perils  to  our  denomination."  It  was 
questioned  whether  such  schools  "could  be  established  with- 
out both  brains  and  money  and  a  great  deal  of  both."  It  was 
doubted  whether  "  the  strong  common  sense  of  the  Baptist 
laity,  from  whom  the  money  was  to  come,  could  be  brought 
to  support "  this  novelty.  It  was  claimed  "  that  the  new 
school  could  do  a  great  deal  of  harm,  and  that  the  sooner  de- 
nominational opinion  was  decisively  expressed  against  it,  and 
its  abandonment  secured,  the  better  for  every  cause  that 
Baptists  have  at  heart."  "  The  Bowdoin  Square  craze  "  was 
denounced  as  "  a  movement  for  reversing  educational  qualifi- 
cations among  the  Baptists,  and  as  an  accusation  of  incompe- 
tence against  our  seminaries."  The  demand  for  "  half-educated 
but  self-confident  men  "  was  ridiculed,  and  finally  (indicating 
perhaps  the  real  animus  of  the  attack)  the  doctrine  of  the  ever 
imminent  return  of  the  Lord  Jesus  derided  as  the  mainspring 
of  this  piece  of  educational  fanaticism. 

No  direct  reply  was  made  to  these  attacks  at  first.  A  sym- 
posium, however,  was  arranged  between  the  opponents  of  the 
school  and  Francis  Wayland,  who,  as  the  father  of  higher 
education  among  the  Baptists,  would  perhaps  be  listened  to 
with  respect.  A  clever  appeal  was  thus  made  to  denomina- 
tional precedents.  From  the  neutral  position  of  moderator 
Gordon  could,  without  participating  directly  in  the  discussion, 
enjoy  the  sight  of  the  denominational  Nestor  rebutting  the 
aspersions  of  the  editors  and  discomfiting  the  "  young  pro- 
fessor of  divinity  who  has  proposed  an  assignment  of  our 
effects,  though  as  yet  we  have  incurred  no  debts,  and  who  has 
named  the  parties  to  act  '  as  reversionary  heirs.' " 


266  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

The  contrasted  views  were  ranged  in  deadly  parallel  down 
a  column  or  more  of  blanket-sheet.  We  have  indicated 
the  positions  taken  by  the  complainants.  The  reverent, 
spiritual,  kindly,  and  yet  shrewd  and  far-seeing  defense  which 
President  Wayland  makes  of  a  varied  ministry  and  of  the 
mission  of  the  unprivileged  as  workers  in  the  kingdom  of  God 
we  cannot  here  quote  at  length.  It  suffices  to  say  that  it 
rebuked  those  children  of  the  Sorbonne  who  in  America  and 
in  our  day  are  so  strongly  emphasizing  mere  ecclesiastical 
standing.  He  declared  that  a  refusal  to  employ  "  every  laborer  " 
was  "equivalent  to  abandoning  the  effort  to  evangelize  the 
world."  He  objected  "  to  giving  to  education  a  place  not 
authorized  by  Jesus  Christ,  thus  establishing  a  ministerial 
caste."  He  declared  that  if  it  were  true  that  a  Baptist  is  "  not 
to  preach  the  gospel  without  years  of  heathen  learning,  or  if 
he  does  that  he  is  nothing  but  a  backwoodsman  of  whom 
every  one  ought  to  be  ashamed,  we  are  dead  and  plucked  up 
by  the  roots'^  And  finally  says,  "  Of  those  called  by  God  to 
the  ministry  some  may  not  be  by  nature  adapted  to  the  prose- 
cution of  a  regular  course  of  study.  Many  others  are  too  old. 
Some  are  men  with  families.  Only  a  portion  are  of  an  age 
and  under  conditions  which  will  allow  them  to  undertake 
what  is  called  a  regular  training  for  the  ministry ;  that  is,  two 
or  three  years  in  an  academy,  four  years  in  college,  and  three 
years  in  a  seminary.  Therefore  theological  training  should  be 
so  adapted  as  to  give  the  greatest  assistance  to  each  of  these 
various  classes.  Let  each  take  what  he  can,  and  then  the 
seminary  is  at  rest." 

It  was  characteristic  of  Gordon  to  turn  attention  from  him- 
self and  his  work  and  to  avoid  controversy  in  this  admira- 
ble and  satisfactory  way.  It  was  equally  characteristic  of  him, 
when  a  friend  was  ungenerously  and  unjustly  attacked,  to 
enter  the  lists  in  his  behalf.  For  when  "  the  chorus  of  indo- 
lent reviewers  "  turned  on  Mr.  Guinness,  the  reply  from  Gor- 


DRILLING   THE  RECRUITS  267 

don's  pen  was  immediate.  No  one  who  reads  it  will  ques- 
tion to  whom  belonged,  in  this  instance,  that  perennial  advan- 
tage which  the  courteous  and  quick-witted  have  in  every  con- 
troversy. 

SHORT-CUT  METHODS 

"  They  were  indignant  at  the  assumptions  of  this  man,  who,  without 
having  attended  a  beth-ha  midrash  (house  of  instruction),  and  without 
being  able  to  show  up  a  horaah  (certificate  of  ordination),  had  ventured 
to  become  a  teacher."  — Delitzsch's  "  A  Day  in  Capernaum." 

"  The  '  Examiner's '  recent  editorial  on  '  new  short-cut 
methods  seems  to  demand  a  word  of  reply.  A  dislike  of  con- 
troversy has  restrained  us  hitherto.  But  since  this  article  has 
been  followed  by  two  others  equally  misleading  and  injurious 
in  their  implications,  we  now  take  in  hand  to  set  forth  the 
whole  matter. 

"  Early  in  the  year,  Dr.  Guinness,  of  London,  became  my 
guest.  I  found  that  he  was  deeply  burdened  for  Africa,  liter- 
ally bearing  it  on  his  heart  night  and  day  with  tears.  As  the 
founder  of  the  Congo  Mission,  he  longs  that  we  should  go  in 
and  possess  our  heritage  on  that  great  '  Baptist  river.'  Our 
mission  there  is  confessedly  the  most  prosperous  of  any  in  the 
region,  fifty  in  a  month  having  been  baptized  during  the  last 
year  at  one  of  the  stations,  where  there  is  now  a  church  of  four 
hundred  baptized  believers.  And  yet,  when  Dr.  Guinness,  who 
planted  this  mission  at  such  cost  of  life  and  money,  and  who 
five  years  ago  gave  it  to  us,  arrived  here,  we  had  not  sent  to 
that  field  a  single  native  America?i  ordained  missionary,  for  the 
reason  that  we  had  sought  in  vain  for  such  to  go.  Without  a 
word  of  criticism  of  this  fact,  he  began  to  visit  our  theological 
schools  and  colleges,  white  and  colored,  to  beg  for  reinforce- 
ments. All  this  he  did  at  his  own  expense,  holding  missionary 
meetings  almost  daily,  during  the  summer  months,  and  working 


268  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

nights  on  the  Scriptures,  so  that,  by  the  aid  of  an  African  boy 
whom  he  kept  with  him,  he  translated  the  entire  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  into  the  Congo  dialect,  in  order  to  help  on  the  work 
of  our  missionaries.  I  am  sure  that  he  did  all  this  from  the 
most  disinterested  motives,  and  with  the  sole  desire  to  forward 
the  work  that  lies  nearest  his  heart.  I  am  therefore  the  more 
sorry  that  the  '  E.xaminer '  should  seek  to  create  prejudice 
against  him  by  slurring  him  as  '  a  Plymouth  Brother '  who  is 
attempting  to  shape  our  missionary  policies.  The  simple  fact 
is  that  he  is  not  a  Plymouth  Brother,  and  never  was ;  but  a 
Baptist  minister,  for  twenty  years  a  member  of  Rev.  Archibald 
Brown's  church  in  East  London,  who,  in  addition  to  his  great 
labors  for  the  foreign  field,  has  constantly  worked  as  an  evan- 
gelist in  that  wretched  region  of  the  great  metropolis,  and  as 
the  result  of  his  labors  has  gathered  and  organized  two  or 
three  flourishing  Baptist  churches. 

"  I  am  equally  sorry  that  the  scare  of  premillenarianism 
should  be  raised  in  this  connection.  If  the  writer  belongs  to 
this  school  in  obedience  to  what  he  believes  to  be  the  literal 
teaching  of  Scripture,  he  considers  himself  neither  better  nor 
worse  than  his  Baptist  fathers,  many  of  whom  have  held  this 
view.  Indeed,  it  is  interesting  to  recall  that  one  of  Mr. 
Spurgeon's  predecessors  in  the  ministry,  Benjamin  Keach, 
was  put  in  the  pillory  for  several  days  on  the  two  charges  of 
Anabaptism  and  premillenarianism.  But  it  was  a  lord  chief 
justice  of  the  Episcopal  Church  who  inflicted  this  humihation 
on  a  Baptist  pastor,  and  it  furnishes  no  precedent  for  a  Bap- 
tist paper's  attempting  the  same  thing  on  Baptist  pastors  of 
to-day.  As  touching  the  question  of  missions,  premillennialists 
maintain  nothing  peculiar  except  that  during  this  dispensation 
the  doctrine  of  '  election  according  to  grace '  holds  true,  and 
that  the  scriptural  promises  concerning  world-wide  conversion 
are  to  be  completely  fulfilled  only  in  the  next  or  millennial  age. 
And  is  it  possible  that  any  of  our  denominational  papers  have 


DRILLING    THE  kECRUlTS  269 

become  so  Arminianized  that  they  must  be  constantly  deriding 
consistent  Calvinists  for  holding  this  doctrine  of  election,  as 
though  it  were  some  novel  article  of  faith?  But  let  it  be 
remembered  that,  in  connection  with  the  subject  under  con- 
sideration, no  one  has  raised  this  question  except  the  '  Ex- 
aminer,' and  no  one  has  intended  to  do  so. 

"  How  can  we  secure  more  missionaries  ?  Dr.  Guinness,  see- 
ing the  earnest,  soul-saving  work  going  on  constantly  under  the 
ministry  of  Pastor  Deming  in  the  Bowdoin  Square  Tabernacle, 
suggested  to  him  and  myself  that  we  open  in  that  church  and 
in  the  adjoining  buildings  '  a  recruiting-station  for  lay  mission- 
ary workers.'  The  enterprise  was  designed  to  give  practical 
experience  in  evangelistic  work,  and  a  course  of  systematic 
biblical  study.  So  far  from  intending  to  interfere  with  any 
higher  schools  of  biblical  learning,  or  to  encourage  a  short 
cut  into  the  ministry,  we  undertook  the  work  solely  for  the 
benefit  of  such  as  could  not  by  any  possibility  avail  themselves 
of  these  advantages.  In  our  prospectus  this  sentence  occurs : 
'All  students  whose  gifts  and  age  warrant  them  in  taking  full 
college  and  seminary  courses  of  study  will  be  strenuously  en- 
couraged to  do  so.'  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  '  Examiner ' 
has  raised  a  false  issue,  and  has  undertaken  to  set  us  by  the 
ears  with  those  with  whom  there  can  be  no  controversy. 
The  applicants  for  admission  have  come  from  the  carpenter's 
bench,  from  the  painter's  pot,  from  the  tailor's  shop,  some  of 
them  confessing  to  a  desire  which  had  burdened  them  for 
years  to  give  themselves  to  foreign  missionary  service,  but  see- 
ing no  chance  till  this  door  opened.  They  are  all  poor,  and 
have  undertaken,  while  engaged  in  study,  to  work  for  their 
board  in  such  places  as  the  Tabernacle  Employment  Office 
may  furnish  them.  With  the  superb  opportunities  for  higher 
culture  which  our  denominational  colleges  and  schools  afford, 
is  it  quite  gracious  to  grudge  these  poor  men  this  very  humble 
opportunity  for  instruction  in  the  Word  of  God  ? 


2^0  ADONIRAM  JVDSOX  GORDON 

"  But  will  it  do  to  encourage  such  candidates  for  missionary 
service  ?  We  have  three  or  four  precedents  to  which  we  can 
appeal  for  an  answer,  and  in  every  instance  the  result  has  been 
satisfactory.  A  member  of  my  own  church,  for  example,  was 
sent  to  India  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Union  as  a  lay 
missionary  on  half  the  usual  pay.  He  had  absolutely  no  theo- 
logical training  except  that  received  by  the  Spirit's  work  in  his 
heart.  Yet,  after  five  years  of  most  self-denying  service,  his 
co-laborers  have  asked  for  his  ordination,  one  of  them,  in  a 
letter  to  his  pastor,  acknowledging  that  in  intelligent  zeal  and 
in  practical  success  he  has  proved  himself  not  a  whit  behind 
the  very  chiefest  of  missionaries  on  that  field.  This  example, 
seconded  by  others  eminently  satisfactory,  suggests  that,  by 
inviting  such  men  as  this  to  enter  missionary  service,  we  may 
do  much  more  than  we  are  doing  to  meet  the  great  emergency 
which  is  upon  us. 

"  The  question  raised,  therefore,  by  all  the  training-schools 
referred  to  in  this  connection  is  simply  this :  '  Shall  earnest 
men  and  women  who  hear  the  call  to  missionary  service,  but 
whose  age  and  circumstances  absolutely  bar  them  from  obtain- 
ing any  higher  education,  be  helped  to  such  biblical  prepara- 
tion as  a  few  pastors,  out  of  their  very  meager  store,  may  give 
them,  and  then  be  sent  forth,  provided  always  that  there  are 
missionary  boards  willing  to  employ  them?  '  This  last  question 
is  declared  by  one  of  the  most  eminent  missionary  secretaries 
of  this  country  to  be  one  that  is  now  confronting  every  great 
missionary  society.  And  it  might  have  modulated  the  '  Ex- 
aminer's '  outburst  of  sarcasm  against  '  Boanerges  Jones  and 
Chrysostom  Smith,'  with  their  '  aggravated  attack  of  big  head  ' 
in  presuming  to  undertake  the  work  of  saving  souls  without 
college  or  seminary  preparation,  to  have  known  that  the  con- 
servative Church  Missionary  Society  of  England  is  the  first 
board  to  settle  this  question,  having  recently  resolved  to  call 
out  and  put  into  the  field  a  large  body  of  lay  workers,  who 


DRILLING    THE   RECRUITS  271 

shall  consent  to  go  on  a  limited  salary,  no  other  preparation 
being  insisted  upon  than  a  simple  knowledge  of  the  way  of 
salvation  as  revealed  in.  Scripture. 

"  This  whole  outcry  against  an  uneducated  ministry  we  hold 
to  be  not  a  mark  of  genuine  culture,  but  of  intellectual  snob- 
bishness. The  following  sentence,  from  a  recent  article  in  the 
'  Independent,'  by  Professor  Samuel  I.  Curtiss,  on  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Christlieb,  is  instructive  in  this  connection : 

" '  Perhaps,'  says  Professor  Curtiss,  '  he  was  the  only  theo- 
logical professor  in  a  German  university  who  has  ever  knelt  in 
a  prayer-meeting.  He  was  accustomed  to  meet  with  a  small 
circle  of  earnest  evangelical  Christians  in  the  Scotch- Irish 
church  in  Bonn.  After  the  death  of  the  pastor,  Dr.  Graham, 
he  purchased  the  church  and  the  house  connected  with  it  as  a 
place  for  training  evangehsts.  It  was  called  the  Johanneum. 
It  was  his  earnest  desire  to  raise  up  godly  young  men  who 
should  engage  in  evangelistic  work  in  Germany.  In  his  later 
years,  in  connection  with  more  abstemious  habits  in  the  use  of 
wine  and  cigars  (  ! ),  he  became  a  premillenarian  in  his  theo- 
logical views.' 

"  The  '  Johanneum '  here  referred  to  was  started  for  precisely 
the  purpose  of  which  we  have  been  speaking.  Professor 
Christlieb  sorrowfully  recognized  the  fact  that  the  German 
clergy,  with  all  their  high  culture,  were  utterly  failing  to  reach 
the  lower  classes,  especially  in  the  great  cities.  Therefore  he 
conceived  the  idea  of  calling  into  the  service  plain  men — 
artisans,  clerks,  and  laborers— who,  with  a  simple  knowledge 
of  Scripture,  might  be  able  to  address  these  people  in  their 
own  dialect.  He  gave  himself  to  the  work  of  raising  up  such 
a  class,  teaching  theology  in  the  university,  and  at  the  same 
time  humbling  himself  to  instruct  in  the  Bible  these  lay  work- 
ers. His  work  was  met  with  the  same  conservative  frown 
which  has  been  turned  on  less  pretentious  eiTorts  in  this  coun- 
try.    The  feeling  raised  against  this  movement  in  Germany 


272  A  DON/RAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

was  such  that  Christheb  was  obhged  to  appeal  to  America  and 
England  for  help  in  training  and  sending  out  these  lay  evan- 
gelists. I  had  the  honor  to  serve  as  one  of  the  American 
committee  for  receiving  and  transmitting  funds,  and  I  had 
by  this  means  considerable  opportunity  to  learn  something 
of  the  blessed  and  soul-saving  results  of  this  much-despised 
work. 

"  Let  it  be  clearly  understood,  in  fine,  that  this  undertaking 
is  not  for  promoting  any  '  new  ministerial  short  cut,'  as  the 
'  Examiner '  affirms,  but  is  an  humble  effort,  undertaken  with- 
out funds  and  without  any  intention  of  seeking  an  endow- 
ment, to  enhst  for  lay  missionary  service  men  and  women  who 
otherwise  might  not  find  their  way  to  the  field.  If  the  word 
'  recruiting-station '  be  kept  in  mind,  none  will  be  misled. 
Those  of  us  engaged  in  this  enterprise  propose,  in  our  mission- 
ary addresses  and  evangelistic  tours  and  by  correspondence, 
to  appeal  for  volunteers  for  the  foreign  work ;  as  we  secure 
such,  to  test  them  by  a  year's  experience  in  city  mission  work, 
and  if  we  find  those  whose  age  and  circumstances  warrant 
them  in  going  to  college  or  seminary,  to  help  them  in  their 
way  thither ;  to  others  we  will  give  the  best  practical  and  bibli- 
cal instruction  we  can." 

The  interpretation  of  the  new  movement  as  antagonistic  to 
higher  theological  education  was  as  false  as  uncalled  for. 
That  the  founder  of  the  school  was  as  friendly  as  ever  to  the 
seminaries  can  be  easily  seen  from  the  following  letter.  Its 
real  import  is  made  more  clear  when  it  is  known  how  largely 
the  financial  weight  of  his  own  enterprise  pressed  upon  him, 
and  how  busily  his  pen  wrought  in  those  days  to  earn  money 
for  continuing  the  modest  work  which  was  being  so  acrimoni- 
ously criticized.  For  during  the  first  year  more  than  eight 
hundred  dollars  of  his  own  salary  was  turned  over  to  the 
school,  and  in  succeeding  years  all  the  proceeds  from  copy- 


DRILLING    THE  RECRUITS  273 

rights  and  articles,  as  well  as  his  entire  income  as  coeditor  of 
the  "  Missionary  Review." 

"  December  17,  1890. 
"  To  Professor  Charles  R.  Brown  : 

"...  In  regard  to  your  appeal  for  Newton,  I  have  been 
waiting  for  a  favorable  time  to  invite  you  and  Burton  to  pre- 
sent the  matter.  In  the  crisis  in  the  aiTairs  of  the  Missionary 
Union— a  debt  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  being 
inevitable  unless  immediate  help  is  forthcoming — I  have  thrown 
my  church  into  the  breach.  We  are  raising  an  extra  five  to 
ten  thousand  dollars  before  January  ist.  After  that,  or  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  year  at  least,  I  will  try  to  give  the  matter 
attention.  I  wish  to  be  put  down  for  fifty  dollars  myself,  and 
hope  to  continue  the  same  yearly.  I  trust  the  work  on  the 
hill  is  greatly  prospering." 

The  attack  on  the  school  served  to  advertise  it.  Students 
began  to  come  in  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  Contribu- 
tions to  its  support  followed.  One  lady  wrote  to  the  head  of 
the  school  that  she  had  read  the  "  Examiner "  articles,  and 
that,  though  she  had  no  knowledge  of  the  working  of  the  new 
project,  was  sure  it  must  be  a  "  good  thing,"  else  the  "  Exam- 
iner "  would  never  have  assailed  it.  She  sent  in  the  letter  a 
large  check  and  in  each  succeeding  year  gave  generously  toward 
current  expenses.  Later  results  richly  repaid  the  investments  of 
time  and  labor.  Prayer  and  self-sacrifice  are  justified  of  their 
children.  Graduates  of  the  school  are  now  working  in  all  parts 
of  the  globe — in  Algeria,  in  China,  in  India,  on  the  Congo,  in 
Barbadoes,  in  Oklahoma,  and  in  the  Soudan.  Many  have  be- 
come efficient  and  prized  city  missionaries  and  pastors.  One 
has  charge  of  a  chapel  car  and  has  founded  a  hundred  or 
more  new  churches  since  he  began  his  work.  Of  the  apostolic 
labors  of  those  who  have  fallen  in  Africa  and  elsewhere,  we; 


274  A  DON/RAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

might  speak  at  length.*  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  died  for 
the  testimony  of  Jesus  after  much  toil  and  suffering,  and  that 
their  praise  is  on  all  lips.  Of  the  summer  work  of  students  in 
the  destitute  parts  of  Maine  and  among  the  hills  of  Vermont 
and  New  Hampshire  we  have  spoken  elsewhere.  The  letters 
which  come  back  from  the  graduates  are  full  of  gratitude  and 
affection  for  the  school,  for  the  instructors,  and  for  the  found- 
er. Finally,  the  numerous  institutions  of  a  like  character 
which  have  sprung  up  all  over  the  country  constitute  a  rein- 
forcing justification  for  the  establishment  of  the  Boston  Mis- 
sionary Training-school.  They  point  to  a  recognition  of  the 
need  of  such  schools,  and  of  the  adequate  way  in  which  the 
need  was  here  satisfied. 

*  David  Miller  in  the  Soudan ;  Richard  Jones,  Banza  Manteke,  Free 
State  of  Congo ;  and  Idalette  Mills,  Barbadoes. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  PREACHER  AND  THE  PULPIT 

Dr.  Gordon  as  a  preacher — His  view  of  what  the  pulpit  should  be — Power 
in  illustration — Examples 

'"T^HE  mutes,"  said  a  recent  French  critic  of  the  pulpit, 
A.  "are  on  all  the  viohns  of  God."  Preaching  has  be- 
come too  often  in  our  city  churches  an  art  where  it  should  be 
an  enthusiasm.  It  ripples  from  a  type-written  manuscript ;  It 
ought  to  pour  from  a  bursting  heart.  It  suggests  not  the 
mountain  cataracts,  but  the  linden-lined  canals  of  Holland. 
It  is  of  Bossuet,  not  of  Savonarola.  Faultily  faultless  in  finish 
and  style,  it  recalls  the  sophist  lecturing  on  ethics  to  the  Roman 
ladies  of  the  Antonines  in  some  private  amphitheater  of  mar- 
ble; it  should  rather  bring  up  a  prophet  in  leopard-skin  to 
whom  a  message  from  God  is  intrusted.  Ah,  yes,  the  mutes  are 
indeed  on  the  violins.  The  old  word  "  repent  "  is  heard  rarely 
save  in  undertone.  The  horror  of  sin  has  not  taken  hold  as 
it  must  and  will.  The  mighty  rushing  wind  sweeps  not  yet 
over  these  fine-twisted,  taut  strings  of  silver. 

Whatever  the  character  of  Dr.  Gordon's  preaching  in  the 
earlier  days,  there  was  in  him  in  the  years  of  maturity  little 
of  the  coiu-t  preacher.  He  proclaimed  without  flinching  the 
helplessness  of  man,  the  impotence  of  the  unrenewed  will,  the 
destiny  of  sorrow  and  punishment  to  which  the  unconverted 
are  drifting.  And  where  the  knife  probed  the  ointment  fol- 
lowed.     For,  while  there  was  no  abatement  of  stem  truths, 

375 


276  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

there  was  in  his  preaching,  as  in  the  gospels,  no  want  of  ten- 
derness. As  the  Etruscans  were  wont  to  whip  their  slaves  to 
the  note  of  flutes,  so  did  the  preacher  lay  bare  sin,  yet  with 
much  gracious  invitation  and  pointing  away  to  the  Lamb  of 
God.  Controversy  he  shunned  as  a  canker.  "  Prophesying 
against  the  prophets  of  Israel  that  prophesy "  would  have 
been  arduous  work  indeed  to  one  so  absorbed  in  holding  up 
the  perfect  Christ  before  men.  Self-advertisement  never  sug- 
gested itself  to  him ;  he  was  but  a  wire  to  transmit  currents. 

The  best  estimate  of  any  preacher  is  apt  to  be  his  own  esti- 
mate of  what  the  pulpit  should  be.  In  the  present  case  we 
have  much  information.  The  advice  to  ministers,  the  criti- 
cisms, favorable  and  unfavorable,  on  the  development  of  the 
contemporary  pulpit,  and  the  suggestions  and  remarks  and  ob- 
servations on  the  whole  subject  of  the  ministry  of  the  Word 
which  Dr.  Gordon  left  behind,  would,  if  collected,  constitute 
almost  material  enough  for  a  text-book  on  homiletics — a  text- 
book which,  from  the  point  of  view  of  apostolic  preaching, 
would  be  fairly  classical.  In  reading  these  over  we  see,  as  it 
were,  the  fresh  types  from  which  the  message  has  been  struck. 
The  man  himself  rises  before  us,  massive  in  delivery,  earnest 
in  appeal,  from  whose  lips  rivers  of  living  water  flow  continu- 
ally.    Here  is  unconscious  self-portraiture. 

Let  us  look,  then,  at  the  ideal  which  this  preacher  of  God's 
truth  set  before  him.  The  notes  which  we  quote  first,  on 
"  The  Homiletic  Habit,"  are  indeed  suggestive  to  those  famil- 
iar with  the  absorbed  look,  the  abstracted,  meditative  face  of 
his  week-days.  Tauler  was  wont  to  draw  his  cap  over  his  eyes 
that  the  violets  might  not  disturb  his  introspections ;  Gordon 
likewise  lived  much  within  the  veil. 


"  In  one  of  Professor  Shedd's  admirable  chapters  on  '  Hom- 
iletics '  we  find  the  phrase,  '  homiletic  habit,'  as  descriptive  of 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE   PULPIT  277 

that  mental  mood  which  in  ministers  is  most  conducive  to 
easy  and  successful  preparation  for  the  pulpit.  We  like  the 
term  and  commend  it  to  our  brethren  as  exceedingly  sugges- 
tive. The  method  by  v^^hich  the  vast  majority  of  sermons  are 
produced  is  anything  but  easy  and  natural.  Many  are  the 
result  of  the  most  painful  retchings  and  strainings  of  the  brain. 
Many  are  the  issue  of  mere  spasmodic  throes  of  the  intellect. 
Many  have  only  a  galvanic  life,  the  heart  having  really  given 
nothing  of  its  own  emotions  for  their  inspiration.  How  few 
are  part  and  parcel  of  the  preacher's  daily  life— a  piece  cut 
from  the  texture  of  his  habitual  experience  ! 

"  Now  it  would  be  a  grand  thing  if  preachers  could  only 
live  in  their  sermons.  Milton  declares  that  to  be  a  poet  one 
must  make  his  whole  life  an  heroic  poem,  and  it  is  equally  clear 
that  to  be  a  true  preacher  one  must  make  his  whole  life  a 
gospel  sermon.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  be  able  to  find  sermons 
in  stones,  but  better  to  be  able  to  find  them  in  one's  own  heart. 
And  he  is  a  wise  preacher  who  keeps  his  mind  so  filled  with 
the  seeds  of  Scripture,  with  the  fruitful  and  springing  germs 
of  pious  studies  and  meditations  and  experiences,  that  it  read- 
ily yields  the  weekly  harvest,  and  does  not  compel  him  to  spend 
his  time  in  gathering  exotics  from  a  foreign  soil.  The  thoughts 
of  other  men  can  never  be  truly  appropriated  except  they  have 
been  first  planted  and  reproduced  in  our  own  experiences. 
Fervor  a  century  old  is  poor  leaven  for  a  sermon  of  to-day. 
Unction  fried  out  of  the  lore  of  some  old  divine  is  thin 
anointing  for  the  discourse  of  the  Hving  preacher.  These  things 
must  be  peculiarly  one's  own  in  order  to  possess  any  real  value. 
They  must  be  the  outcome  of  a  genuine  experience — the  product 
and  commodity  of  an  habitual  mental  and  spiritual  discipline. 

"  Hence  the  importance  of  keeping  the  mind  and  heart 
toned  up  with  respect  both  to  fervor  and  activity  in  order 
that  the  preacher  may  be  able  to  bring  forth  freshly  and  read- 
ily the  living  message. 


278  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

"  There  is  an  almost  universal  habit  among  ministers  of  let- 
ting down  and  unbending  after  the  fatigues  and  pressure  of 
the  Lord's  day.  This  is  well,  provided  it  does  not  result  in 
disorganization  and  demoralization.  But  if  the  preacher  in 
attempting  to  rest  disbands  his  Sabbath  thoughts  and  gives 
furlough  to  his  holier  frames  and  feelings  so  that  several  days 
are  requisite  to  get  them  back  into  rank  and  file  again  for  pro- 
ducing a  sermon,  his  rest  has  been  really  a  serious  loss.  Let 
a  minister  be  Mondayish  on  Monday  provided  he  does  not 
thereby  incapacitate  himself  for  being  Sundayish  on  the  other 
days  of  the  week — those  days  over  which  the  work  and  wor- 
ship of  the  approaching  Sunday  must  always  project  them- 
selves, and  for  the  labors  of  which  the  strength  and  tone 
acquired  upon  the  preceding  Sunday  should  be  always  pru- 
dently economized.  The  minister  can  ill  afford  to  let  his  fires 
go  out  and  his  mental  machinery  come  to  a  dead  standstill  for 
a  day.  If  he  does,  when  he  returns  to  work  he  will  find  much 
of  the  time  which  ought  to  be  wholly  used  in  producing  de- 
manded for  the  mere  work  of  starting  up  again.  Having  lost 
his  preaching  mood,  he  finds  it  exceedingly  difficult  to  get  it 
back  again  ;  for  a  mood  is  not  like  a  colt  turned  out  to  pasture 
that  can  be  caught  and  bridled  at  will,  but  a  very  illusory  and 
often  refractory  thing.  And  so,  having  to  preach  of  necessity, 
he  finds  himself  forced  up  to  an  unwelcome  and  ungenial  task 
in  the  preparation  of  his  discourses,  instead  of  finding  in  this 
process  of  composition  a  grateful  vent  for  the  outflow  and 
overflow  of  his  resources  and  a  joyful  exercise  of  ready  and 
spontaneously  acting  powers. 

"  Preaching  ought  to  be  '  a  mode  of  self,'  to  use  Dr.  Alex- 
ander's striking  phrase— the  exhibition  of  one's  own  religious 
life  and  experience.  ...  To  be  obliged  to  borrow  a  character 
to  preach  in  is  worse  than  being  obliged  to  borrow  a  sermon 
to  preach.  The  latter  is  literary  plagiarism,  and  the  former 
moral  plagiarism,  which  is  worse.    Yet  who  that  preaches  has 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PULPIT  279 

not  been  at  times  painfully  conscious  of  his  two  personalities? 
Who  does  not  feel  that  the  perfect  harmonizing  of  the  two, 
the  complete  blending  of  the  two  into  a  consistent  and  insep- 
arable unity,  is  the  greatest  attainment  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry?  Nothing  is  stronger  or  more  inexorable  than  habit. 
Blessed  is  the  man  to  whom  the  duties,  the  spirit,  the  aim, 
and  the  example  of  the  ministry  have  become  a  habit  and  no 
longer  a  painfully  acquired  exception.  The  best  commentary 
on  the  whole  subject  may  be  found  in  the  recent  saying  of 
Canon  Wilberforce  concerning  his  father— that  'in  his  later 
years  he  gave  up  preparing  sermons,  and  simply  prepared 
himself.' " 

II 

In  the  next  few  extracts  polemical  and  sensational  preach- 
ing is  deprecated : 

"  A  Christian  is  the  most  powerful  evidence  of  Christianity, 
and  an  infidel  is  the  most  potent  factor  of  infidehty.  Let  the 
man  of  God  do  his  utmost  to  conquer  the  man  of  no  God, 
and  skepticism  will  go  inevitably.  We  have  not  the  imperti- 
nence to  call  a  halt  in  the  war  upon  abstraction— so  many  hun- 
dred embattled  theologians  discharging  their  logic  guns  at 
agnosticism,  positivism,  atheism,  and  what  not— but  we  may 
be  pardoned  for  inviting  a  fresh  assault  upon  agnostics  and 
atheists,  not  in  any  martial  attitude,  but  on  our  knees.  If  the 
thousand  pulpits  and  churches  in  our  land  would  concentrate 
their  prayers,  their  faith,  and  their  tender  persuasions  upon 
such  skeptics  as  come  within  their  range,  what  inroads  would 
be  made  upon  unbelief  within  a  few  years! 

" '  Brethren,'  writes  James,  '  if  any  of  you  do  err  from  the 
truth,  and  one  convert  him ;  let  him  know,  that  he  which  con- 
verteth  the  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way  shall  save  a  soul 
from  death,  and  shall  hide  a  mtiltitude  of  sins.'   And  shall  we 


28o  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

reverse  the  method,  and  first  aim  at  the  multitude  of  sins,  bat- 
tUng  with  the  whole  brood  of  doubts  and  denials  and  hberalities 
and  speculations  in  hope  that,  having  slain  these,  we  may  ar- 
rive at  last  at  the  sinner  who  harbors  them,  to  turn  him  from 
the  error  of  his  way  and  save  his  soul  from  death?  No;  the 
sinner  converted,  the  multitude  of  sins  will  be  swept  away ; 
the  doubter  won,  his  doubts  will  vanish  into  air.  God's  war- 
fare does  not  set  us  first  to  reduce  the  circumvallation  of  doubt 
and  unbelief,  but  to  capture  at  once  and  completely  the  cita- 
del of  the  heart.  Is  it  not  true  that  most-pf  the  attacks  on 
skepticism  are  made  from  a  fondness  for  intellectual  tourna- 
ments, or  at  least  for  the  gatidium  spolii,  t^e  joy  of  victory, 
which  the  contests  may  afford?  Were  the  real  purpose  to  win 
over  the  unbeliever,  there  would  be  often  more  self-denial 
than  self-gratification  in  the  undertaking.  Let  us  lay  doivn 
the  cudgel  and  take  tip  the  cross.  The  beginning  of  strife  is  as 
when  one  letteth  out  water ;  therefore  leave  off  contention  and 
take  up  prayer  and  pleading,  that  it  may  be  as  when  one  let- 
teth out  tears." 

Ill  '.  ^  ' 

"  One  of  the  most  fatal  errors  of  the  time  is  that  ministers 
undertake  to  be  feeders  of  men  instead  of  fishers  of  men. 
One  cannot  be  fed  upon  the  gospel  until  he  has  been  renewed. 
But  what  if  a  preacher  with  a  crowd  of  unconverted  hearers 
before  him  makes  it  his  chief  aim  to  feed  them,  instead  of 
dropping  the  gospel  hook  among  them,  and  holding  it  there 
until  upon  its  barbed  point  somebody  is  pricked  in  the  heart 
and  led  to  cry  out, '  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved? '  and  so  be 
caught  for  Christ?  Feeding  the  fish  may  be  very  exciting 
business,  but  it  is  very  profitless.  Bait  with  no  hook  on  it, 
bait  consisting  of  popular  hits  at  the  faults  and  inconsistencies 
of  the  church,  keen  thrusts  at  the  stupid  bigotry  of  the  old 
musty  creeds,  sharp  innuendoes  about  sanctimonious  deacons 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PULPIT  281 

and  hypocritical  professors — what  a  stir  and  excitement  and 
flash  of  exhilaration  will  follow  when  a  handful  is  thrown  out! 
By  it  how  many  fish  will  be  caught?  Nay ;  '  I  will  make  you 
fishers,'  not  feeders,  '  of  men.'  Catch  the  fish  first  and  bring 
them  into  a  regenerated  life ;  then  they  will  have  a  relish  for 
the  solid  and  substantial  food  of  Scripture  truth,  and  we  shall 
not  have  to  feed  them  on  the  bait  of  popular  novelty  and  bits 
of  sensationalism.  .  .   . 

"  But  let  us  not  forget  that  we  are  sent  to  save  men,  not  to 
destroy  them ;  to  win  them,  not  to  wound  them.  And,  there- 
fore, what  glory  is  it  that  we  have  won  a  reputation  for  keen- 
ness in  rebuke,  for  brilliancy  in  pulpit  repartee,  for  pungency 
in  hitting  off  the  faults  and  foibles  of  our  brethren?  It  is 
a  short  road  to  popularity,  indeed.  Let  it  be  known  that  a 
minister  on  next  Sunday  is  going  to  give  a  hot,  spicy  discourse 
on  the  crookedness  of  deacons  and  the  shallowness  of  Chris- 
tians in  general,  and  it  will  be  sure  to  call  out  a  large  atten- 
dance. The  popularity  of  some  of  our  most  noted  preachers 
has  been  largely  due  to  their  ingenuity  in  this  direction.  But 
this  is  not  our  calling  as  Christians.  4  It  is  for  us  to  set  forth 
the  beauty  and  excellency  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  to  exhibit 
the  follies  and  blemishes  of  human  nature. '7ln  either  case  we 
shall  be  unconsciously  assimilated  to  the  image  of  that  on 
which  we  dwell.  '  I  do  not  allow  myself  to  look  at  a  bad 
picture,'  said  Sir  Peter  Lely,  the  artist,  '  for  if  I  do  my  brush 
is  certain  to  take  a  hint  from  it.'  Caricaturists  of  human 
nature  likewise  come  at  last  to  present  very  bad  specimens  of 
human  nature  in  their  own  character.  They  learn  uncon- 
sciously to  personate  their  own  pictures  and  to  exemplify  their 
own  exaggerations.  Take  now  and  then  a  sorrowful  look  at 
human  nature,  but  for  one  look  in  this  direction  take  ten  to- 
ward the  perfect  Christ  and  hold^m  up  steadily  and  faith- 
fully, and  all  the  while  you  will  be  growing  into  the  same 
iraaee  from  glory  to  glory." 


282  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

IV 

Compactness,  humility,  unwearied  reiteration  of  the  truth, 
unction,  the  preeminent  use  of  the  Word,  the  avoidance  of 
speculative  preaching,  the  commingling  of  the  sterner  truths 
of  the  gospel  with  the  more  pleasing  in  due  proportion,  are 
inculcated  in  the  extracts  which  follow : 

"  That  is  an  admirable  and  witty  homiletic  maxim, '  Do  not 
make  too  many  heads  to  your  sermon,  lest  you  may  not  be 
able  to  find  ears  for  them  all ! '  Indeed,  having  the  ears  al- 
ready at  hand,  how  many  a  minister  by  his  long  sword  of  in- 
tolerable prolixity  wantonly  repeats  the  offense  of  Peter  upon 
the  servant  of  the  high  priest  !  Brevity  is  not  only  the  soul  of 
wit,  but  the  soul  of  wisdom  for  the  preacher.  .  .  . 

"  Self-seeking  corrupts  everything  and  turns  even  the  Lord's 
work  into  a  means  of  self -promotion.  How  often  the  minis- 
ter quenches  the  Spirit  by  trying  to  shine!  How  often  the 
soul-winner  goes  out  of  the  pulpit  because  the  great  preacher 
has  come  in!  .  ,1  . 

"What  is  considered  a  fault  in  rhetoric  is  a  virtue  in  testimony, 
viz.,  repetition,  saying  the  same  thing  again  and  againtill  it  has 
fairly  worn  a  hole  in  men's  indifference  and  let  the  light  in. 

"  The  Lord  would  not  have  told  Simon  to  put  up  his  sword 
if  it  had  been  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  that  he  was  wielding. 
The  sword  of  the  Spirit  lays  open  the  heart,  while  the  sword 
of  the  flesh  only  cuts  off  the  ears.  Now  there  has  been  a  long 
succession  of  Petrine  apostles,  valiant  swordsmen  of  the  faith, 
whose  principal  ministerial  trophies  are  severed  ears,  and  not 
converted  hearts ;  who  have  preached  with  such  two-edged 
severity  as  to  alienate  their  hearers  when  they  should  have 
won  them.  The  Lord  has  not  called  us  to  be  theological 
gladiators,  to  win  applause  from  the  crowd  by  our  skill  in  cut- 
ting and  slashing.  ... 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE   PULPIT  283 

"  We  are  God's  witnesses,  not  his  logicians  sent  to  argue 
men  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.    We  are  not  God's  debaters, 
sent  to  discuss  theology  with  men,  and  to  convince  them  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity.     If  this  were  so,  we  might  well  be 
afraid  of  getting  worsted ;  for  the  world  is  full  of  good  logi- 
cians and  skilled  debaters— men  that  are  more  than  a  match 
for  us  on  that  ground.     We,  on  the  contrary,  as  Christ's  ser- 
vants, are  simply  to  bear  witness  year  in  and  year  out,  using 
the  Word  of  God,  and  not  our  own.     Our  success  will  not 
depend  upon  our  acuteness  or  our  eloquence  or  our  skill,  but 
upon  God's  Spirit,  that  accompanies  and  energizes  that  Word. 
It  takes  a  strong  muscle  to  throw  a  hand-ball  so  that  it  shall 
strike  a  hard  blow ;  but  a  child  can  fire  a  rifle-ball  effectively, 
since  the  propelling  power  is  in  the  powder  and  not  in  the 
muscle.     So  it  takes  a  strong  man  to  use  an  argument  effec- 
tively ;  but  a  babe  in  Christ  can  use  a  text  of  Scripture  with 
prevailing  force,  since  it  is  not  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by 
God's  Spirit,  that  the  text  is  impelled.     '  The  power  of  a  word,' 
says  Emerson,  'depends  upon  the  power  of  the  man  that 
stands  behind  it.'     But  the  power  of  God's  Word  depends 
upon  the  power  of  the  Spirit  that  stands  behind  it,  its  inspirer 
and  its  abiding  energizer.   .  .  . 

"  The  sincere  milk  of  the  Word  may  be  dispensed  from  the 
pulpit,  yet  given  out  so  frigidly  and  unfeelingly  as  to  make  it 
very  hard  to  receive.  In  Siberia  the  milkmen  sometimes 
deliver  their  milk  in  chunks,  not  in  quarts,  it  being  frozen 
solid  and  thus  carried  about  to  the  customers.  Alas !  is  not 
this  the  way  many  pulpits  deliver  the  milk  of  the  Word  ?  It 
is  the  pure  article,  sound,  orthodox,  and  unadulterated,  but  it 
is  frozen  into  logical  formularies  and  hardened  and  chilled 
by  excessive  reasonings.  Let  us  so  preach,  O  men  of  God, 
that  our  sermons  shall  not  have  to  be  thawed  before  they  can 
be  digested.  .  .  . 
\      "  Use  nourishments  instead  of  stimulants  in  your  efforts  to 


284  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

bring  up  the  spiritual  tone  of  the  church.  By  stimulants  we 
mean  frantic  appeals,  severe  denunciations,  stinging  rebuke. 
These  rouse  for  the  single  day  on  which  they  are  employed, 
but  their  effect  is  exhausted  before  the  week  is  over,  and  the 
application  must  be  repeated  the  next  Sunday,  and  so  on 
week  after  week.  By  nourishment  we  mean  the  Scriptures 
unfolded,  expounded,  and  steadily  applied.  '  The  words  that 
I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and  they  are  life.'  .  .  . 

"  Feet  shod,  not  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace, 
but  with  conjecture,  tracking  an  experiment,  running  in  the 
way  of  some  unexplored  'perhaps' — these  can  leave  no  path 
for  sin-blinded  and  truant  souls  to  walk  in.  .  .   . 

"  Two  chemical  elements  which  are  very  mild  and  innocu- 
ous in  themselves  often  have  prodigious  energy  when  combined. 
So  it  is  with  love  and  truth.  Those  who  preach  love  alone 
are  often  the  weakest  and  most  ineffective  witnesses  for  Christ ; 
those  who  preach  the  truth  alone  not  infrequently  demonstrate 
the  impotence  of  a  soulless  orthodoxy.  But  the  truth  in  love  is 
vital,penetrating,  and  has  the  dynamic  force  which  we  seek.  .  .  . 

"  The  highest  reach  of  genius  comes  far  short  of  the  lowest 
degree  of  inspiration.  To  electrify  a  hearer  is  one  thing ;  to 
bring  a  hearer  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  quite  another.  .  .  ." 

In  power  of  illustration  Dr.  Gordon  had  few  equals  in  the 
contemporary  pulpit.  His  comparisons  were  always  vivid, 
always,  to  use  a  fine  French  phrase,  "palpitating  with  actu- 
ality." They  had  a  power  of  instantaneous  illumination,  mak- 
ing clear  at  once  any  abstruseness  in  thought  which  it  might 
be  necessary  to  hght  up.  Never  were  they  haled  in  for  their 
own  sake.  "  Distinguished  guests,"  he  was  wont  to  say,  "  we 
may  introduce  with  as  extended  formality  as  we  choose,  but 
we  do  not  introduce  our  servants.  They  fulfil  their  office 
best  by  coming  in  quietly  and  unheralded,  performing  their 
proper  duty,  and  then  retiring.    Illustrations  are  the  preacher's 


THE   PREACHER   AND   THE   PULPIT  2S5 

servants.  Their  elaborate  presentation  to  the  audience  tends 
to  Hft  them  out  of  their  proper  subordination,  as  though  they 
came  to  be  ministered  unto  instead  of  to  minister." 

These  illustrations  were  not  raised,  as  turnips  or  roses,  by- 
careful  cultivation.  They  were  plucked  by  the  wayside,  and 
had  all  the  freshness  and  artlessness  of  wild  flowers.  Return- 
ing one  day  from  a  fishing  excursion — the  only  one,  we  be- 
lieve, since  boyhood  in  which  he  ever  took  part,  and  which 
was,  naturally  enough,  ill  fated  in  its  results — he  ran  across  a 
lad  with  a  long  string  of  black  bass.  He  announced  his  own 
poor  luck  and  asked  the  reason  therefor.  "  I  guess  yer  didn't 
keep  out  of  sight,"  was  the  appropriate  answer,  which  was 
used  to  explain  in  the  next  Sunday's  sermon  why  some  min- 
isters made  so  few  converts.  At  another  time,  in  passing 
through  the  woods,  he  noticed  two  trees  which  had  rubbed 
the  one  against  the  other  and  had  then  grown  together. 
Shortly  afterward  he  was  called  upon  to  speak  at  the  Mild- 
may  Conference  in  London.  At  the  end  of  his  address  he 
recalled  the  fact  of  the  crossed  trees  and  used  it  in  the  follow- 
ing exquisite  and  perfect  illustration  : 

"And  now  I  must  close.  In  the  part  of  New  England 
where  I  spend  my  summer  holidays  I  have  seen  a  parable  of 
nature  which  sets  forth  what  I  have  said.  It  is  an  example 
of  natural  grafting.  Two  little  saplings  grew  up  side  by  side. 
Through  the  action  of  the  wind  they  crossed  each  other.  By 
and  by  the  bark  of  each  became  wounded  and  the  sap  began 
to  mingle  until,  in  some  still  day,  they  became  united  together. 
This  process  went  on  more  and  more,  and  by  and  by  they 
were  firmly  compacted.  Then  the  stronger  began  to  absorb 
the  life  of  the  weaker.  It  grew  larger  and  larger,  while  the 
other  grew  smaller  and  smaller,  withering  and  declining  till  it 
finally  dropped  away  and  disappeared.  And  now  there  are 
two  trunks  at  the  bottom  and  only  one  at  the  top.  Death 
has  taken  away  the  one ;  life  has  triumphed  in  the  other. 


2  86  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

"  There  was  a  time  when  you  and  Jesus  Christ  met.  The 
wounds  of  your  penitent  heart  began  to  knit  up  with  the 
wounds  of  his  broken  heart,  and  you  were  united  to  Christ. 
Where  are  you  now?  Are  the  two  Uves  running  parallel,  or 
has  the  word  been  accomplished  in  you,  '  He  must  increase, 
but  I  must  decrease'?  Has  that  old  life  been  growing  less 
and  less  and  less  ?  More  and  more  have  you  been  mortifying 
it  until  at  last  it  seems  almost  to  have  disappeared?  Blessed 
are  you  if  such  is  the  case.  Then  can  you  say,  '  I  live ;  yet  not 
I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me:  and  the  life  which  I  now  hve  in 
the  flesh  I  live,  not  of  myself,  but  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of 
God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me.  Henceforth 
for  me  to  live  is  Christ.'  " 

Biography  fiu-nished  constant  illustrations.  Now  it  would 
be  the  story  of  Ziska's  skin  stretched  over  a  drumhead,  lead- 
ing the  Utraquists  to  victory ;  now  the  heroic  tale  of  some 
early  saint  or  of  some  Reformation  martyr.  We  recall  the 
thrilling  power  with  which  the  story  of  John  Coleridge  Pat- 
teson's  death  was  used  in  a  missionary  meeting  in  Philadel- 
phia. The  isle  on  the  distant  horizon,  unvisited  and  unex- 
plored, was  first  described.  Then  came  the  story  of  the 
departure,  the  voyage  over  the  still  water,  the  landing,  the 
attack  upon  Patteson,  the  flight  back  to  the  canoe,  and  the 
return  with  the  dead  missionary's  body  pierced  with  five 
wounds  and  covered  with  palm-leaves.  The  application  of 
the  incident  followed.  This  earth,  a  little  isle  in  the  infinite, 
was  pictured,  and  the  yearning  of  the  Lord  Jesus  for  its  bless- 
ing. He  too  put  out  through  the  seas  of  space  ;  he  too  landed 
on  an  errand  of  grace ;  he  too  was  rejected  and  slain ;  he  too 
was  laid  away  in  grave-clothes  with  five  bleeding  wounds. 
The  stillness  was  intense  as  the  preacher  passed  from  point  to 
point  through  the  whole  series  of  touching  correspondences, 
and  as  he  urged  the  duty  of  Christians  in  the  task  of  complet- 
ing the  missionary  work  of  the  Lord  Jesus  on  earth,  as  the  sue- 


THE  FKEACIIER  AND    THE  PULPIT  287 

cessors  of  Patteson  on  the  lonely  Melanesian  isle  had  finished 
his. 

With  this  power  of  illustration  went  along  an  extraordi- 
nary scripturalness.  His  mind  had  become  saturated  with 
biblical  phraseology  by  the  long  years  of  patient  meditation  on 
the  Word.  He  held  the  Bible,  so  to  speak,  in  solution ;  he 
was  completely  assimilated  to  it  in  word  and  in  thought. 
His  illustrative  gifts  were  to  him  as  a  second  language  by 
which  he  could  interpret  his  meaning  at  will.  His  skill  at 
translation  back  and  forth  from  the  vernacular  to  the  Scripture 
equivalent  gave  him  the  power  of  a  third  tongue.  Thus  he 
was  trilingual  in  his  exposition,  using,  as  it  might  happen,  his 
own  vigorous  Saxon  dialect,  the  mellow  diction  of  the  Bible 
saturated  with  tender  associations,  or  the  picturesque  idiom  of 
illustrative  anecdote. 

In  the  pages  which  follow  there  are  collected  a  few  fine  and 
pregnant  characterizations  and  some  quaintly  apposite  illustra- 
tions, together  with  a  number  of  examples  of  beautifully  discrim- 
inating exposition.  Perhaps  in  years  to  come  these  and  many 
which  have  appeared  elsewhere  will  be  referred  to  and  quoted 
as  the  Puritan  divines  of  former  days  were  quoted  by  him. 

"  '  Ye  became  followers  of  us  and  of  the  Lord.'  Not  of  us 
alone,  but  of  us  and  of  the  Lord.  We  are  to  imitate  good 
men,  but  all  the  time  we  must  look  beyond  them  to  the  Lord 
himself.  If  you  examine  a  school-boy's  copy-book  you  will 
find  that  the  writing  grows  worse  and  worse  as  you  go  down 
the  page.  Why?  Because  in  the  first  line  he  looked  only  at 
the  master's  copy.  Ever  after  that  he  looked  more  or  less  at 
his  own  reproduction  of  it.  Look  at  human  models,  but  fol- 
low them  ever  back  to  the  divine  original.  Christ's  example 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  page  ;  all  that  comes  after  is  more  or 
less  imperfect.  Let  us  look  to  it,  therefore,  diligently,  lest,  by  our 
faulty  example,  we  become  dissenters  from  our  own  creed." 


288  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

"  In  the  order  of  divine  providence,  the  Lord  needs  the 
action  of  our  will  just  as  much  as  we  need  the  action  of  his 
will.  In  the  old-fashioned  watch  there  are  the  mainspring  and 
the  hair-spring.  The  hair-spring  does  not  move  the  main- 
spring, but  is  moved  by  it ;  and  yet  the  mainspring  depends 
on  the  hair-spring  to  take  off  the  power  that  was  stored  up  in 
it.  By  tick  after  tick  of  this  Httle  spring  the  motion  that  was 
coiled  up  in  the  great  central  spring  is  released  and  communi- 
cated to  the  machinery.  So  we  say  our  will  does  not  move 
God's  will ;  it  is  moved  by  it.  At  the  same  time  God's  will  is 
dependent  on  the  submission  and  choice  of  our  will  in  order 
that  he  may  bless  us  and  give  us  the  things  that  we  need." 

"  It  costs  our  government  just  as  much  to  uniform  a  well- 
dressed  recruit  as  it  does  a  ragged  one.  In  either  case  the 
recruit  must  put  off  his  citizen's  dress  and  put  on  the  army 
blue  ;  and  so  it  is  not  worth  while  for  a  volunteer  to  spend  his 
labor  and  pains  to  get  a  new  suit  to  enlist  in.  There  is  like- 
wise no  necessity  for  a  sinner's  waiting  to  get  a  better  moral 
garb,  a  more  respectable  wardrobe  of  frames  and  feelings,  be- 
fore he  may  come  to  Christ." 

"  I  saw  a  sign-painter  take  a  dish  of  gold-dust  and  pour  it 
over  the  board  upon  which  he  was  working;  but  when  he 
turned  the  board  over  all  of  it  seemed  to  slide  off.  But  no, 
not  all ;  the  lines  where  his  brush  had  been  drawn  a  few  mo- 
ments before  with  the  adhesive  preparation,  these  caught  the 
glittering  particles  and  held  them  firm.  So,  thought  I,  must 
the  teachers  of  God  now  do.  They  must  pour  the  golden 
sand  of  the  gospel  over  the  whole  congregation ;  and  if  it 
seems  to  slide  off  and  get  no  hold  upon  their  hearts,  they 
must  know  that  many  a  one  who  has  been  touched  with  the 
preparing  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  will  catch  and  hold  fast  the 
Word  of  life,  and  so  the  Word  shall  not  return  to  God  void." 


THE   PREACHER  AND    THE  PULPIT  289 

"  The  audacity  of  unbelief  is  the  secret  of  its  attractiveness 
to  many  minds.  The  act  of  walking  on  a  rope  stretched  over 
Niagara  does  not  differ  materially,  as  a  physical  performance, 
from  that  of  walking  on  a  brick  pavement ;  yet  the  latter  is  so 
sober  and  common  an  act  that  it  attracts  no  attention,  while 
the  former  from  its  very  peril  and  hardihood  will  draw  hun- 
dreds to  witness  it.  And  so  the  feats  of  those  who  walk  on 
the  perilous  edge  of  truth,  the  ventures  of  those  who  play 
with  falsehood  and  hang  suspended  over  the  vortex  of  unbe- 
lief>  with  just  sufficient  hold  on  faith  to  keep  them  from  falling 
in,  are  always  vastly  more  diverting  than  the  proceedings  of 
those  who  pursue  an  orderly  and  even  way  of  truth  and  ortho- 
doxy." 

"  Some  people  seem  to  think  that  if  they  can  pack  the  gos- 
pel away  into  a  sound  and  orthodox  creed  it  is  perfectly  safe. 
It  is  a  sort  of  canned  fruit  of  Christianity,  hermetically  sealed 
and  correctly  labeled,  which  will  keep  for  years  without  decay. 
An  extravagant  reliance  has  been  placed,  therefore,  on  con- 
fessions of  faith  as  the  preservatives  of  a  pure  gospel.  But 
the  heart  is  greater  than  the  creed ;  and  if  the  heart  is  wrong 
it  will  very  soon  corrupt  the  creed  and  interline  it  with  its  own 
heresies.  Hence  the  wise  injunction  of  the  apostle,  '  Holding 
the  mystery  of  the  faith  /;/  a  pure  conscience.^  ^^ 

"  It  is  a  sad  fact  that  evil  is  far  more  infectious  than  good. 
Disease  is  contagious  ;  health  is  not.  If  an  invalid  could  only 
catch  the  robust  healthfulness  of  the  one  who  sits  next  him  in 
the  street-car  as  readily  as  a  well  man  catches  the  cholera  or 
the  smallpox  from  his  traveling  companion,  what  a  happy  cir- 
cumstance it  would  be!  Instead  of  quarantines  for  isolating 
disease  we  should  have  hospitals  for  propagating  health.  We 
should  vaccinate  men  with  the  contagion  of  sound  lungs  and 
pure  blood.     But  alas!   while  it  is  very  easy  for  evil  commu- 


290  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

nications  to  corrupt  good  manners,  it  is  very  difficult  for  good 
communications  to  correct  bad  manners.  Puritan  Manton 
says,  '  Ears  of  corn  do  not  catch  our  clothes  and  hang  about 
them,  but  thorns  and  burs  do.'  Very  true.  And  how  the 
burs  of  avarice  and  the  thorns  of  worldliness  catch  upon  the 
garments  of  the  church  as  she  passes  along  Therefore  it  is 
necessary  that  we  should  pick  off  these  burs  every  night  when 
we  come  home  from  walking  through  this  present  evil  world. 
Be  sure  it  is  not  the  function  of  the  pulpit  to  paint  these  burs 
so  that  they  shall  look  like  roses,  to  blunt  these  thorns  so  that 
they  shall  cease  to  wound  the  conscience," 

"  When  you  carry  a  manuscript  to  the  printer  for  him  to 
put  into  type,  he  says  to  you,  '  In  a  few  days  I  will  send 
you  a  proof.'  He  makes  the  proof  by  laying  a  sheet  of  paper 
on  his  types  and  taking  an  impression  of  them.  Now  the  or- 
dinances are  proofs  of  Christ,  the  facsimile  of  the  death  and 
resurrection ;  and  creeds  are  proofs  of  Christ,  the  duplicate 
copy,  if  they  are  correct,  of  his  Word  and  doctrine." 

"  Experimental  religion,  as  it  used  to  be  called,  has  an  im- 
mense advantage  over  philosophical  and  sacramental  religion 
at  this  point.  One  can  go  into  court  on  an  experience,  but 
who  cares  to  hear  one  swear  on  a  syllogism  or  a  tradition? 
To  have  come  into  direct  personal  contact  with  Christ  in  re- 
generation enables  believers  to  say,  with  John,  '  that  which  we 
have  looked  upon  and  our  hands  have  handled  of  the  Word 
of  life.'  Unanswerable  confession.  That  which  we  have 
handled  with  our  hands  is  very  warm  and  vital ;  that  which 
has  been  handed  to  us  by  priestly  hands  gets  strangely  cooled 
and  devitalized  in  coming  through  the  long  reaches  of  tactual 
succession.  We  have  a  living  Christ  made  ever  present  to  us 
through  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  we  cannot  afford  to  receive  our 
grace  through  lessened  and  circuitous  channels  when  such  pro- 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PULPIT  291 

vision  has  been  made  for  obtaining  it  immediately  by  the  touch 
of  a  personal  and  appropriating  faith.  The  Chinese  worshiper, 
in  praying  to  his  ancestors,  believes  that  if  he  makes  known 
his  petition  to  his  dead  father,  and  he  in  turn  to  his  father  till 
the  remotest  ancestor  is  reached,  the  latter  will  hand  it  over 
to  God.  This,  it  will  be  perceived,  is  sacerdotalism  with  the 
current  reversed.  Poor  Chinaman!  Poor  sacramentarian ! 
How  faint  the  echo  of  those  intercessions,  how  feeble  the 
impact  of  that  grace,  which  has  come  through  such  inter- 
minable routes ! " 

"  Pascal  says  very  beautifully,  '  Jesus  let  only  his  wounds 
be  touched  after  his  resurrection.  Hereby  I  perceive  that  we 
can  now  be  united  to  Christ  only  through  his  sufferings.' 
Yes ;  now  only  through  his  atonement  which  those  sufferings 
have  purchased.  It  is  not  the  life  of  Christ  lived  before  the 
crucifixion  by  which  we  are  to  be  saved,  but  the  life  of  the 
risen  and  glorified  Christ.  '  Henceforth  I  know  no  man  after 
the  flesh,'  says  Paul :  '  yea,  though  I  have  known  Christ  after 
the  flesh,  yet  now  I  know  him  no  more.'  Many  to-day  are 
trying  to  imitate  the  earthly  life  of  Christ ;  many  others  are 
trying  to  be  saved  by  imitating  the  death  of  Christ.  The 
world  is  pretty  nearly  divided  between  these  two  classes,  those 
who  are  seeking  salvation  by  copying  Christ's  life,  and  those 
who  are  seeking  salvation  by  copying  his  death,  the  one  look- 
ing for  peace  by  self-morahty  and  the  other  by  self-mortifica- 
tion. One  of  our  missionaries  relates  the  terrible  suffering  of 
a  heathen  whom  he  found.  So  many  years  he  had  Hved  with 
his  body  immersed  in  water ;  so  many  years  he  had  swung  on 
hooks  piercing  through  his  flesh — a  horrible  record  of  studied 
barbarities  inflicted  on  the  body.  He  was  simply  trying  to 
make  peace  with  God  through  his  wounds.  Here,  in  this  little 
meeting  of  the  disciples,  is  the  most  significant  answer  to  such 
blind  yearnings  of  our  poor  humanity — the  risen  Lord  stand- 


292  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

ing  before  the  world  and  saying,  '  Peace  be  unto  you,'  and 
then  showing  the  wounds  in  his  body  by  which  he  has  pur- 
chased that  peace.  No  longer  are  we  called  to  make  peace 
with  God,  since  the  Scriptures  declare  that  Christ  has  made 
peace  by  his  cross.  The  gospel  which  we  preach  now  to  the 
world  is  not  Make  peace ^  but  'Take  peace.'  .  .  .  Choirs  of 
angels — all  the  orchestra  of  heaven — singing,  *  Peace  on  earth, 
good  will  to  men,'  are  nothing  compared  with  this  little  sermon 
within  the  closed  doors.  'Peace  be  unto  you';  'and  when 
he  had  so  said  he  showed  them  his  hands  and  his  side.'  Here 
was  the  handwriting  of  redemption  deeply  engraved  in  his 
flesh ;  here  was  the  title-deed  of  pardon  written  in  his  risen 
body.  The  wounds  of  Christ  are  an  eternal  and  unanswerable 
reply  to  all  accusations  of  conscience. 

"  We  are  aware,  however,  that  men  will  not  look  to  Christ's 
wounds  for  healing  until  their  hearts  have  been  wounded  for 
sin.  This,  then,  is  the  first  requisite— that  our  hearts  be 
melted  for  our  sins.  We  say  melted.  David  said,  '  A  broken 
and  a  contrite  heart,  O  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise.'  The  law 
of  God  by  the  hammer  of  affliction  or  by  the  smitings  of  judg- 
ment may  break  the  heart.  But  broken  ice  is  just  as  cold  as 
solid  ice.  And  we  have  seen  worldly  hearts  all  shattered  and 
bruised  to  pieces  by  calamity,  yet  remaining  as  frigid  as  an 
iceberg.  We  do  not  undervalue  law  work  in  preaching,  but 
oh!  it  is  grace  work  that  melts.  And  the  wounds  of  Christ 
are  just  as  powerful  to  melt  the  heart  as  to  heal  it." 

"  What  a  solemn  expression  is  this,  '  Making  the  cross  of 
Christ  of  none  effect ' !  No  power  or  might  of  man  can  sweep 
the  stars  from  the  sky  or  blot  the  sun  from  the  heavens  or 
efface  the  splendid  landscape ;  but  one  wound  in  the  eye  can 
destroy  the  sight  and  make  all  those  things  as  though  they 
were  not.  So  the  atonement  of  Christ  can  never  pass  into 
eclipse  or  cease  to  be  a  fact ;  but  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the 


THE  rREACIIER  AND    THE  PULPIT  293 

eclipse  of  faith — unbelief  filming  the  soul  so  that  the  cross  and 
atonement  of  Christ  shall  become  a  great  blank — vacant,  Ufe- 
less,  meaningless.  O  eyes  that  are  becoming  dim,  but  not 
with  age ;  blinded,  but  not  with  tears ;  hard  of  seeing,  but  not 
with  use — hear  the  Lord  speaking  from  heaven,  '  Anoint  thine 
eyes  with  eye-salve,  that  thou  mayest  see.'  It  is  not  that  God 
has  need  to  do  greater  things  for  us,  but  that  we  should  open 
our  eyes  and  see  what  he  has  done." 

"  I  have  been  struck  in  observing  the  various  attempts  to 
explain  a  certain  phrase  that  Paul  uses — 'In  all  these  things 
we  are  more  than  conquerors.'  Yet  how  simple  it  is  when 
taken  in  its  connection.  He  sums  up  all  the  things  he  is  en- 
during— the  sword,  peril,  nakedness,  dying  all  the  day  long 
for  Christ,  led  daily  like  a  sheep  to  the  slaughter;  and  then 
he  saj's,  'In  all  these  things  we  are  more  than  conquerors.' 
How?  Plainly  thus.  The  man  who  is  victorious  through 
victory  is  a  conqueror ;  but  he  who  is  victorious  through  de- 
feat is  more  than  conqueror." 

"  Many  persons  prefer  not  to  know  their  whole  duty  lest 
they  should  be  obhged  to  do  it.  We  read  the  other  day  of  a 
rich  miser  who  was  afflicted  with  cataracts  on  both  his  eyes. 
He  applied  to  an  eminent  surgeon  to  remove  them,  and  after 
examination  was  told  that  it  could  be  done.  *  But  what  will 
it  cost?  '  was  his  anxious  question.  '  One  hundred  dollars  for 
each  eye,'  was  the  answer.  The  miser  thought  of  his  money 
and  then  thought  of  his  bhndness,  and  said,  '  I  will  have  one 
eye  restored ;  that  will  be  enough  to  enable  me  to  see  to  count 
my  money,  and  I  can  save  the  expense  of  having  the  other 
operated  on.'  '  O  Lord,  open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  be- 
hold wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law,'  cries  the  true  Christian. 
But  the  half-and-half  Christian  wants  only  one  eye  opened. 
He  likes  to  have  the  minister  preach  conversion  strongly,  be- 


294  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

cause  he  has  been  converted  himself  and  beUeves  in  it ;  but  he 
does  not  hke  to  have  him  preach  consecration,  for  that  impHes 
laying  himself  and  all  his  wealth  on  God's  altar,  and  he  is  not 
ready  for  that.  In  other  words,  he  deUberately  chooses  a  one- 
eyed  rehgion— that  which  sees  Christ  as  Saviour  but  ignores 
him  as  sanctifier.  But  is  Christ  divided?  Can  we  halve  him 
by  om-  partial  faith,  so  that  he  can  be  our  Saviour  who  delivers 
us  from  the  penalty  of  otu"  sins,  and  not  be  our  Master  who 
commands  our  obedience?  We  do  not  think  so.  We  can- 
not be  saved  without  Christ's  cross,  and  we  cannot  be  sancti- 
fied and  made  meet  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  without  our 
own  cross.  '  Except  a  man  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  fol- 
low after  me,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple.'  To  begin  to  be  a 
Christian  is  an  easy  thing,  but  to  be  a  Christian,  in  all  the 
length  and  breadth  of  meaning  involved  in  that  word,  this 
costs  a  battle — a  battle  with  self,  a  battle  with  sin,  a  battle 
with  the  world,  a  battle  with  the  evil  one." 

In  a  gracious  article  on  "  The  Names  of  Scripture  "  he  says : 
"  None  will  have  their  names  stricken  off  because  of  their 
waywardness  and  wanderings.  On  the  contrary,  these  will  be 
the  oftener  mentioned,  as  the  straying  sheep  hears  its  name 
called  more  frequently  than  the  one  which  keeps  close  to  the 
flock.  Did  you  ever  think  to  listen  and  hear  Jesus,  the  Good 
Shepherd,  call  his  sheep  by  their  names?  'Simon,  Simon, 
behold,  Satan  hath  desired  to  have  you,  that  he  may  sift 
you  as  wheat :  but  I  have  prayed  for  thee.'  '  Martha, 
Martha,  thou  art  careful  and  troubled  about  many  things: 
but  one  thing  is  needful'  '  Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutes!  thou 
me?'" 

"  Speech  is  that  which  especially  reveals  the  flavor  or  quality 
of  the  man.  It  may  sometimes  feign  sanctity,  to  be  sure, 
when  it  is  wanting  in  the  life ;  and  it  may  seek  to  make  itself 


THE  PREACHER  AKD   THE  PULPIT  295 

redolent  with  a  borrowed  grace,  as  the  tippler  disguises  his 
breath  with  spices  and  perfumes ;  but  the  illusion  cannot  be 
long  maintained.  'Thy  speech  bewrayeth  thee,'  is  a  saying 
of  universal  application.  One  cannot  live  sinfully  and  talk 
holily,  live  impurely  and  talk  cleanly,  live  selfishly  and  talk 
generously.  '  Show  me  your  tongue,'  says  the  doctor,  as  the 
first  demand  of  the  patient.  Here  is  the  most  favorable  point 
for  a  diagnosis.  And  the  truest  diagnosis  of  the  soul  can  be 
made  in  the  same  way  by  examining  the  tongue  to  see  what 
kind  of  a  deposit  and  coloring  the  thoughts  and  desires  have 
left  there.  Therefore,  of  those  who  are  constituted  the  salt  of 
the  earth  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  the  requirements  made, 
'  Let  your  speech  be  always  with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt.' 
Well  shall  we  mark  the  words.  We  are  not  told  to  let  our 
speech  be  salt  entirely,  totally.  To  take  a  whole  mouthful  of 
salt  will  choke  one  and  turn  his  stomach.  We  may  in  spiritual 
things  disgust  and  repel  men  by  a  too  raw  and  excessive  and 
unmixed  use  of  religious  conversation.  A  pious  but  very  re- 
fined and  sensitive  minister  recently  declared  that  the  greatest 
provocation  to  anger  and  intemperate  speech  that  he  had  ever 
encountered  was  in  the  conduct  of  a  rough  and  boisterous 
Christian,  who  used  to  shout  at  him  across  the  street  or  in  the 
cars  or  wherever  he  chanced  to  meet  him,  '  Well,  brother, 
how's  your  soul?  '  It  was  difficult,  no  doubt,  for  him  always 
to  answer  the  salutation  with  grace ;  and  the  reason  is  obvious. 
This  man's  speech  was  not  delicately  seasoned  with  salt,  and 
so  was  nauseous  and  intolerable  when  it  might,  if  fitly  seasoned, 
have  proved  refreshing.  It  is  a  great  art  to  temper  one's 
Christian  conversation  exactly  to  the  occasion." 

"  The  hfe  of  Jesus  gave  us  the  inspiration  of  example ;  the 
cross  of  Jesus  kindled  the  inspiration  of  love ;  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus  begot  the  inspiration  of  hope ;  but  the  ascension  of 
Jesus  gave  the  inspiration  of  direct  power." 


296  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

" '  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel ;  for  he  hath  visited 
and  redeemed  his  people,'  is  a  significant  note  in  the  prophecy 
of  his  birth.  Four  times  in  the  gospels  is  our  Lord's  advent 
to  earth  spoken  of  as  a  visit.  But  it  was  a  visit  which  never 
for  a  moment  looked  toward  a  permanent  abiding.  At  his 
birth  he  was  laid  in  a  borrowed  manger ;  at  his  burial  he  was 
laid  in  a  borrowed  tomb  because  he  owned  no  foot  of  earth ; 
and  between  the  cradle  and  the  grave  was  a  sojourn  in  which 
the  Son  of  man  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  The  mountain- 
top  whither  he  constantly  withdrew  to  commune  with  his 
Father  was  the  nearest  to  his  home.  And  hence  there  is  a 
strange,  pathetic  meaning  in  that  saying,  'And  every  one 
went  to  his  own  house.    Jesus  went  into  the  Mount  of  Ohves.'  " 

"  Covering  sin  is  allowable  if  only  the  sin  is  another's,  not 
ours.  '  He  that  covereth  his  sins  shall  not  prosper,'  but 
'  Charity  covereth  a  multitude  of  sins,'  the  faults  and  flaws 
and  imperfections  of  others." 

"  Many  have  been  the  kinds  of  bread  that  have  been  de- 
vised to  meet  the  cravings  of  the  perverted  appetites  which 
everywhere  prevail.  Bread  of  intellect  and  bread  of  imagina- 
tion ;  bread  of  art  and  culture,  and  bread  of  doubt  and  denial ; 
bread  half  baked  in  which  gospel  and  science,  faith  and  phi- 
losophy, have  been  kneaded  together  in  an  impossible  mixture ; 
and  poisoned  bread,  which  is  the  sheerest  infidelity,  sent  forth 
with  the  stamp  of  some  pulpit  on  it.  Of  the  two  things  which 
are  distressing  to  look  upon  to-day,  one  knows  not  which  is 
the  more  distressing,  the  great  multitude  which  cares  nothing 
for  the  bread  of  life,  or  the  other  multitude  which  feeds  on  the 
bread  of  death  and  is  satisfied  with  it." 

"The  uplifted  gaze  without  the  outstretched  hands  tends 
to  make  one  visionary ;  the  outstretched  hands  without  the 
upward  look  tend  to  make  one  weary." 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PULPIT  297 

"  It  is  not  the  fleshly  heart  alone  that  has  a  right  ventricle 
and  a  left  ventricle.  The  spiritual  heart  is  divided  in  the 
same  way,  and  the  great  majority  of  Christians  assign  one 
compartment  of  the  heart  to  self,  and  leave  the  other  side  to 
Christ.     That  is  half-heartedness  in  service." 

"  Persecution,  indeed,  like  everything  else  which  the  Lord 
has  blessed  and  sanctified,  has  been  counterfeited  by  his  great 
enemy.  Many  a  man  who  glories  in  tribulation  is  really  glory- 
ing in  his  own  shame,  his  fancied  crown  of  martyrdom  being 
only  a  fool's  cap  which  signalizes  his  preeminent  self-deception. 
The  ritualist  setting  up  in  the  church  his  half-heathen  ceremo- 
nials, and  complaining  of  the  discipline  that  sets  him  aside 
from  the  ministry  ;  the  rationalist  crucifying  the  faith  of  Christ 
with  the  nails  of  his  unsanctified  logic,  and  then,  because 
God's  true  servants  hold  oflf  from  him,  counting  it  persecution 
— what  have  these  to  do  with  wearing  the  crown  of  Christ's 
rejection?  " 

"  Never  shall  I  forget  a  scene  which  I  witnessed  in  yonder 
cemetery.  There  was  one  solitary  mourner  bearing  an  only 
child  to  burial.  I  stood  by  his  side  and  offered  the  last  prayer, 
and  then  he  shut  the  lid  of  the  casket  and  locked  it,  and,  put- 
ting the  key  into  his  pocket,  turned  away.  Instantly  I  seemed 
to  hear  from  the  garden  of  God,  where  Jesus  is,  the  words, 
'Why  weepest  thou?  Fear  not;  for  I  am  he  that  liveth  and 
was  dead,  and  behold,  I  am  alive  fore  verm  ore,  and  have  the 
keys  of  death  and  of  the  grave.'  That  father  could  turn  the 
key  that  shut  in  his  child,  but  not  the  key  that  opened  the 
door  back  to  hfe ;  but  Jesus  has  the  key  that  openeth." 


CHAPTER  XXII 

ERRANT  MAN  AND  THE  INERRANT  BOOK 

Dr.  Gordon's  theology — The  Bible  and  inspiration  —  Estimate  of  human 

nature 

THE  text  was  for  Dr.  Gordon  not  the  winding  horn  of  the 
chase  to  signal  the  start  across  the  moors  of  rhetoric  and 
through  the  tangled  woods  of  theology  ;  rather  was  it  the  inscrip- 
tion above  an  entrance  opening  into  the  Word  of  God.  Scrip- 
ture he  compared  to  the  dissected  map.  To  find  the  complete 
statement  of  truth  it  is  needful  to  hunt  through  chapter  after 
chapter,  book  after  book,  and  to  combine  the  scattered  parts. 
The  concordance,  he  said,  is,  after  all,  the  best  commentary. 
"  In  Scripture  single  words,  like  blazed  trees  in  a  forest,  are 
sure  guides  through  the  labyrinth  of  revelation.  '  Lamb,' 
'  blood,' '  faith,' '  forgiveness,' '  peace  '—these  are  God's  words ; 
and  whoever  will  take  one  of  them  and  trace  it  through  the 
Bible,  threading  together  on  this  single  word,  as  on  a  cord,  the 
various  texts  where  it  occurs,  will  find  both  a  wondrous  con- 
tinuity and  a  wondrous  unity  thereby  estabhshed." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  to  the  Bible  he  accorded 
a  place  of  solitary  and  unapproachable  preeminence.  With 
those  who  stand  ready  to  degrade  it  to  the  ranks,  stripping 
from  it  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  sending  it  down  to  march 
with  Shakespeare,  Plato,  and  the  raw  conscripts  of  heart  and 
brain,  he  never  argued.  The  sensitized  film  photographs 
more  than  the  eye  can  detect.  The  prepared  heart  sees  more 
than  the  aciitest  critic.    "  There  is  a  finer  sense  than  the  scien- 

298 


ERRANT  MAN  AND  THE  INERRANT  EOOJC     299 

tific,  a  more  delicate  touch  than  the  exegetical.  It  is  written, 
and  cannot  be  altered,  'The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the 
things  of  the  Spirit  of  God :  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him : 
neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned.' The  Bible  repeatedly  suffers  violence,  and  the  violent 
seek  to  take  it  by  force.  But  the  Holy  Spirit  alone  holds  the 
key  to  it.  He  only  knows  the  combination  of  faith  and  study 
by  which  it  can  be  unlocked,  and  all  its  hidden  treasures  of 
wisdom  and  knowledge  appropriated." 

As  to  modern  Old  Testament  criticism,  he  doubtless  felt,  as 
do  many  others,  that,  though  it  may  be  as  scientific  as  paleontol- 
ogy, it  is  also  as  lifeless  and  as  dry.  He  thought  it  a  new 
scholasticism  as  wearisome  as  that  of  Aquinas  or  of  Duns 
Scotus,  as  far  removed,  too,  from  the  method  of  Jesus.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  was  not  ready  to  make  a  casus  belli  of 
theories  concerning  "  priestly  writers  "  and  "  redactors."  The 
time  is  short.  Speculation  soon  dies  out  if  not  fed  with  the 
oil  of  controversy.  Fruitfulness  is  more  important  than  an 
abstract  accuracy.  The  way  of  light  is  not  paved  with  lexi- 
cons, but  with  self-denials  and  faithful  testimonies.  He  shut 
the  door  behind  him,  therefore,  leaving  the  sanhedrim  of 
critics  and  conservatives  to  wrangle  and  bicker,  and  passed 
out  into  the  world  of  the  needy  and  the  sorrowing.  "  '  Take 
and  eat  in  simplicity  the  bread  as  you  have  it  before  you,' " 
he  said,  quoting  Bengel,  " '  and  be  not  disturbed  if  you  find 
in  it  now  and  then  a  grit  of  the  millstone.'  In  reading  some 
of  the  lucubrations  of  the  higher  criticism,  it  seems  as  though 
it  had  deliberately  selected  the  grit  and  ignored  the  grain. 
Let  such  as  like  this  way  grind  their  teeth  on  biblical  criti- 
cism ;  but  such  as  prefer  food  to  fault-finding  will  eat  the  grain 
of  the  Word." 

And  again :  "Upon  the  much-mooted  question  of '  inerrancy  ' 
we  do  not  presume  to  enter.  But  we  do  express  the  wish 
that  our  higher  critics  were  as  ready  to  test  their  own  iner- 


300  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  CORDON 

rancy  by  Scripture  as  to  test  the  Scripture's  inerrancy  by  their 
own. 

"We  can  conceive  of  nothing  better  than  Bengel's  rule  for 
searching  the  Word  of  God  with  profit :  '  Te  totiun  applica  ad 
textum;  rem  totam  applica  ad  te.'  ('  Apply  thyself  wholly  to 
the  text ;  apply  the  subject  wholly  to  thyself.')  Subjective 
criticism  was  never  so  urgently  needed  as  now ;  and  we  might 
even  copy  with  profit  the  example  of  some  of  our  Puritan 
fathers,  who  used  to  spend  hours  on  their  knees  before  the 
open  Bible,  praying,  '  Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart : 
try  me,  and  know  my  thoughts :  and  see  if  there  be  any  wicked 
way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasting.' 

"On  the  contrary,  has  not  the  te  totuin  application  to  the 
text  of  Scripture  been  vastly  overdone  in  our  day?  'Truly 
light  is  sweet,  and  a  pleasant  thing  it  is  for  the  eyes  to  behold 
the  sun,'  and  unquestionably  very  useful  scientific  ends  are 
promoted  by  the  spectroscope,  which  unbraids  the  sunbeams, 
assorts  their  rays,  and  assigns  them  to  their  various  sources. 
But  this  is  not  the  process  which  makes  the  flowers  grow,  and 
the  grain  ripen,  and  the  orchards  bring  forth  their  fruit.  Many 
who  are  engaged  in  practical  Christian  work  believe  that  the 
principal  use  of  Scripture  is  for  regeneration  and  spiritual  nu- 
trition ;  that  its  words  are  '  spirit  and  life,'  and  as  such  are  as 
certain,  if  received  and  cherished  in  the  heart,  to  produce  trans- 
formed and  holy  characters  as  the  wheat  grain  to  beget  the 
wheat  harvest.  Why  not  occupy  ourselves,  therefore,  prin- 
cipally with  sowing  the  seed  of  the  Word  broadcast  among 
men?  And  as  to  our  personal  use  of  Scripture,  is  it  not  bet- 
ter that  we  use  the  Bible  as  a  search-hght  for  illuminating  cur 
understanding  than  to  use  our  understanding  as  a  search-warrant 
for  discovering  whether  some  error  or  contradiction  may  not  be 
hiding  in  the  nooks  and  crannies  of  its  history  or  chronology? 

"  An  errant  Bible  is  exactly  what  is  demanded  by  errant 
youth.     To  a  '  man  beholding  his  natural  face  in  the  glass ' 


ERRANT  MAM  AND   THE  IN  ERRANT  BOOK     301 

of  Scripture  it  is  a  vast  relief  to  be  assured,  on  scientific  au- 
thority, that  the  glass  is  perchance  considerably  convexed,  so 
that  the  sinful  self  seen  therein,  which  has  often  been  so  trouble- 
some, after  all,  may  have  been  greatly  exaggerated.  Our  plea 
is  not,  however,  for  war  on  the  critics,  but  for  watch  over  our- 
selves— that  we  let  no  day  pass  in  the  new  year  in  which  we  do 
not  turn  the  light  of  Scripture  upon  our  lives,  subject  our  hearts 
to  its  searching  inquisition,  and  rejoice  to  be  found  out  by  it  con- 
cerning those  sins  of  which  we  have  been  willingly  ignorant." 

This  reverential  regard  for  the  Bible  pervaded  his  whole 
teaching  and  gave  to  his  theological  opinions  an  anchorage  in 
days  of  drift  and  uncertainty.  We  remember  reading  in  a 
Boston  newspaper  a  report  of  one  of  his  sermons  made  by  a 
young  woman  from  the  Harvard  Annex,  who  prefaced  her 
column  with  a  brief  description  of  the  church  and  of  its  pas- 
tor. Her  remarks  on  the  well-filled  house  and  hearty  congre- 
gational worship  were  appreciative  and  commendatory.  Of 
the  sermon  she  observed  that  one  could  scarce  have  believed 
that  any  progress  had  been  made  in  theology  since  the  days 
of  Jonathan  Edwards  if  the  words  of  the  speaker  could  be 
used  as  a  test.  Ah  well!  what  she  heard  there  was  truly 
older  than  Edwards,  older  than  Calvin,  older  than  Augustine, 
older  even  than  Paul.  It  came  from  the  heart  of  Jesus  him- 
self. "  Back  to  Christ,"  was  the  cry  and  aim  of  the  preacher. 
The  soul  of  man  was  to  him  not  a  common  inn  for  nondescript 
and  vagrant  theories,  but  a  home  for  the  perpetual  residence 
of  God's  Spirit.  In  "  progressive  theology,"  therefore,  he  took 
little  interest.  "  '  Advanced  thought,'  "  he  used  to  say,  "  is  very 
aptly  characterized  by  the  Revised  Version  :  '  He  that  goeth 
on  and  abideth  not  in  the  truth  is  not  of  God.'  We  can  go 
on  and  outstrip  the  Word  of  God,  but  such  advances  are  at 
our  peril.  Almost  better  lag  behind  the  truth  than  outrun  it. 
Best  of  all  is  it  to  walk  in  the  truth." 

The  common  term  of  opprobrium  with  which  opinions  of 


302  ADONIRAM  JVDSOM  GORDON 

this  sort  are  stigmatized  in  Boston  is  "  narrowness."  "  Broad  " 
and  "  narrow  "  are  at  best  vaguely  relative  terms,  and  ordina- 
rily mere  ungracious  epithets  bandied  by  partizans.  For  it 
should  be  marked  that  the  test  of  "  liberalism  "  is  as  purely 
personal  as  that  of  heresy  in  the  middle  ages.  If  you  agree 
with  me  you  are  "  broad  "  ;  if  not,  "  narrow."  Properly  used, 
however,  these  adjectives  concern  not  belief,  but  temper, 
animus,  and  manner  of  presentation.  Thus  most  of  us  would 
agree  that  the  man  who  wrote  the  thirteenth  of  First  Corin- 
thians, "  that  paean  to  charity,"  was  more  of  a  liberal,  spite  of 
his  Calvinism,  than  many  who  bear  the  name.  The  honest, 
just,  and  pertinent  characterizations  of  doctrine  are  not 
"broad"  and  "narrow,"  but  "true"  and  "false."  So  we 
have  "  broad  "  men  advocating  false  doctrine  and  "  narrow  " 
men  maintaining  the  truth.  Now,  while  exception  might  be 
freely  taken  to  the  interpretation  of  Christianity  set  forth 
weekly  from  the  pulpit  of  the  Clarendon  Street  Church,  of  the 
courtesy  of  the  preacher,  the  generosity,  the  liberalism  (in  its 
uncorrupted  sense),  there  could  be  no  question.  "  It  is,"  con- 
fessed one  of  his  opponents,  "  more  of  a  delight  to  me  to  hear 
Dr.  Gordon  speak  what  is  not  according  to  my  mind  than  to 
listen  to  any  other  man  discourse  on  that  which  I  like  and 
agree  with." 

Gordon  himself  would  have  said  that  the  test  by  which  the 
truth  or  falsity  of  his  opinions  was  to  be  determined  was  that 
of  scripturalness  or  unscripturalness.  The  test  of  experience 
and  of  history,  however,  in  all  important  particulars  reinforces 
the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament.  The  axiom  with  which 
he  started  was  the  corruption  of  man  and  the  hopelessness  of 
all  attempts  at  self-recovery.  The  human  heart  is,  in  his  opin- 
ion, an  incorrigible  recidivist.  Its  fallings  are  incessant.  It  is 
at  ever-recurring  intervals  remanded  by  the  judge,  conscience, 
to  the  punishment  of  remorse,  to  the  lonely  cell  of  despair. 
Men  without  Christ  are,  as  the  contagion-smitten  crews  on 


ERRANT  MAN  AND    THE  INERRANT  BOOK      303 

those  Baltic  vessels  in  the  days  of  the  Black  Death,  dead, 
dying,  drifting.  In  themselves  there  is  no  hope,  no  salvation, 
no  escape. 

"  The  simple  fact  is,"  he  writes,  "  that  we  are  in  a  fallen 
condition  by  nature ;  yes,  worse  than  fallen,  we  are  in  a  bur- 
dened condition.  We  bear  the  weight  of  inherited  transgres- 
sion in  our  bodies  and  souls.  Every  man  carries  his  father 
and  his  grandfather  on  his  back.  People  sneer  at  the  doc- 
trine of  original  sin,  but  let  them  look  at  the  facts  of  human 
life  and  be  silent.  Hawthorne  in  his  '  Note-book,'  published 
after  his  death,  says,  '  I  have  been  reading  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress."  What  a  strange  figure  Christian  cuts,  going  through 
the  country  with  the  burden  on  his  back!  I  wonder  what  he 
has  in  his  pack?'  Had  the  great  novelist  no  dealings  with 
his  own  conscience  that  he  should  ask  such  a  question?  Had 
he  had  no  observation  of  human  life  not  to  mark  how  men 
come  into  the  world  weighted  down  with  hereditary  tendencies 
toward  wrong-doing,  under  which  they  stagger  to  the  grave?" 

This  doctrine  of  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  man  is  the  pons 
asinorum  of  both  theology  and  experience.  It  is  the  one  cer- 
tainty of  which  it  is  allowable  to  speak  with  dogmatic  positive- 
ness.  To  say  that  "  men  are  by  nature  and  from  the  begin- 
ning sons  of  God,"  that  "  there  is  nothing  in  Christianity  which 
has  not  its  roots  in  human  nature,"  and  that  "reverence  for 
our  own  human  nature  is  the  only  salvation  from  brutal  vice 
and  every  false  belief,"  is  to  declare  one's  self  unsophisticated, 
unaccountably  bhnd,  a  prophet,  if  not  of  the  deceit  of  one's 
heart,  at  least  of  the  sightlessness  of  one's  eyes.*     In  the  "  era 

*  How  can  men  preach  thus?  Probably  because  their  minds  dwell 
upon  the  convergence  of  worldly  Christians  and  respectable  worldlings 
into  one  group,  where  classification  is  as  difficult  as  of  those  diatoms  and 
desmids  which  scientists  at  one  time  declare  vegetation  and  at  another 
animal  life.  There  is  no  mistaking  a  milch  cow  for  a  beech-tree,  however. 
Neither  should  there  be  any  difficulty  in  discriminating  between  unspeak- 
able Turks  and  ineffable  saints.     They  cannot  both  be  "  sons  of  God." 


304  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

of  good  feeling  "  in  which  Gordon  Hved  the  distinctions  be- 
tween good  and  bad,  the  regenerate  and  the  sullenly  and  ob- 
stinately evil,  were  commonly  slighted.  The  world  was  declared 
to  be  growing  hourly  better,  the  flesh  proclaimed  to  be  in  no 
need  of  renovation,  and  the  devil  ridiculed  as  a  figment  of  the 
imagination  vanishing  at  the  cock-crowing  of  science.  "  Ruin 
and  redemption,"  he  was  wont  to  say,  "  are  the  two  poles  of 
evangelical  theology ;  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  to-day  and 
in  Boston  orthodoxy  is  at  both  poles  considerably  flattened." 
The  sentimental  theory  of  "  universal  sonship  "  was  mingled 
with  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  as  santonin  powder  is  mixed  with 
food,  resulting  in  a  strange  color-blindness  which  made  the 
whole  earth  appear  beautifully  but  falsely  rose-hued.  In  this 
Pelagian  teaching,  as  Amiel  says,  "  the  specifically  Christian 
accent  is  lost.  Christianity  becomes  a  religion  of  dignity,  not 
of  humility.  Penitence,  the  struggles  of  weakness,  find  no 
place  in  it.  Holiness  and  mysticism  evaporate,  the  law  is 
effaced,  and  faith  is  made  a  poor,  dull  thing."  * 

"  Life  is  deeper  than  faith,  and  death  is  deeper  than  denial. 
Heterodoxy,  generally  speaking,  is  simply  spiritual  death  trans- 
lated into  a  creed.  If  the  men  who  are  now  promoting  the 
new  theology — a  counter-reformation  destined  to  bury  every 
church  it  touches  in  helpless  spiritual  death — had  been  engaged 
for  years  in  the  hand-to-hand  labor  of  bringing  the  uncon- 
verted to  Christ,  we  believe  that  such  a  movement  would  have 
been  impossible."  So  Gordon  wrote  of  those  martyrs  "  of  the 
chair,"  the  Andover  professors,  in  the  days  of  the  Andover 
controversy.  It  was  doubtless  his  work  among  outcasts  and 
drunkards  which  saved  him  from  the  incorrigible  optimism  in 
regard  to  man's  nature  current,  and  which  enabled  him  to 
preach  Christ  crucified  with  such  steadfastness  and  tenderness. 
The  following  extracts  illustrate  his  evangelicism  and  exemplify 
the  fervor  and  power  of  its  presentation : 

*  "Journal  Intime,"  p.  115. 


ERRANT  MAN  AND    THE  INERRANT  BOOK      305 

"  Liberalism  is  the  religion  of  human  nature.  It  does  not 
make  stern  and  rigid  claims  on  men.  It  does  not  hold  them 
up  to  strong  convictions  on  such  subjects  as  sin  and  retribu- 
tion and  the  need  of  regeneration.  Hence  when  men  get  care- 
less and  easy-going  in  their  opinions  they  drift  into  what  is 
called  liberahsm  as  inevitably  as  water  runs  downhill.  You 
never  find  men  backsliding  into  orthodoxy;  you  never  find 
men  drifting  into  high  Calvinism ;  and  you  never  will  till  you 
find  water  running  uphill  and  iron  floating  upward  in  the  air. 
On  the  contrary,  one  has  to  chmb  to  get  into  this  kind  of  faith, 
trampling  on  pride  and  self-esteem,  and  holding  himself  rigidly 
up  to  that  conviction  which  is  hardest  to  receive,  that  human 
nature  is  naturally  depraved  and  needs  regeneration,  and  that 
God  is  righteously  holy  and  must  punish  sin.  If  one  gets  tired 
of  believing  this  he  has  only  to  shut  his  eyes  and  sHde,  and  by 
the  simple  gravitation  of  human  nature  he  lands  among  the 
liberals  as  certainly  as  a  stone  loosed  from  the  mountain-side 
lands  in  the  valley." 

"  We  have  sometimes  turned  up  a  flat  stone  in  a  field  just  to 
see  the  nameless  brood  of  hideous  insects  that  would  be  found 
there,  and  to  see  them  rushing  in  every  direction  to  hide  them- 
selves from  the  sun  that  was  poured  in  upon  them.  So  if  the 
shield  of  respectability  were  suddenly  removed,  if  the  sanction 
of  false  custom  were  lifted,  if  human  palliations  and  excuses 
were  for  a  moment  taken  away,  and  our  hearts  were  left  naked 
and  open  before  him  with  whom  we  have  to  do,  what  a  hurry- 
ing and  hiding  there  would  be  from  the  face  of  him  that  sit- 
teth  on  the  throne!  what  a  shrinking  away  of  secret  sins — 
of  enmity  and  jealousy  and  falsehood  and  impurity!  So  in 
these  days  of  shallow  theology  there  is  nothing  so  needful  as 
that  we  should  have  times  of  thorough  self-examination  in 
which  we  should  try  to  see  the  worst  there  is  in  us.  We  ought 
now  and  then  to  take  out  a  search-warrant  for  our  own  hearts, 


3o6  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

and,  when  we  find  what  evil  there  is  in  us,  to  say,  '  Strike, 
Lord,  for  I  deserve  the  worst.  I  will  not  evade,  I  will  not 
palliate,  I  will  not  contend ;  I  will  bear  the  indignation  of  the 
Lord,  because  I  have  sinned  against  him.'  " 

"  One  can  no  more  compel  his  heart  to  love  that  to  which 
he  is  disinclined  than  he  can  change  the  law  of  gravitation  so 
that  it  shall  lift  him  up  instead  of  holding  him  down.  But  if 
you  have  a  new  heart  the  law  of  your  spiritual  gravitation 
will  be  changed  so  that  you  will  be  attracted  heavenward  in- 
stead of  earthward.  *  Be  of  good  cheer :  I  have  overcome 
the  world,'  says  Jesus.  But  why  should  I  be  of  good  cheer 
on  that  account?  If  the  world  has  overcome  me  so  that  I 
lie  bruised  and  bleeding  beneath  its  feet,  it  is  no  comfort  for 
another  to  say  to  me,  *  Be  of  good  courage ;  for  though  you 
have  fallen,  I  stand  upright ;  and  though  you  have  been  de- 
feated by  sin,  I  have  conquered  sin.'  It  would  only  deepen 
my  chagrin  and  discouragement  instead  of  giving  new  courage. 
But  in  the  Epistle  of  John  we  have  a  text  which  supplements 
this :  '  This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even 
our  faith.'  Does  this  mean  that  having  faith  in  yourself  en- 
ables you  to  overcome  the  world?  No.  And  yet  this  is  all 
the  gospel  that  many  have  for  the  helpless  sinner.  They 
would  go  to  the  poor  victim  of  lust  and  intemperance,  who 
lies  utterly  defeated  and  despairing,  and  who  cries,  '  Oh  that 
I  could  get  away  from  myself,  for  I  am  my  own  worst  enemy,' 
and  they  would  say  to  him,  '  Have  faith  in  yourself.'  As 
well  tell  a  drowning  man  to  lay  hold  oi.  his  right  hand  in  order 
to  rescue  himself  when  both  the  right  hand  and  the  left  belong 
to  the  same  sinking  body.  No!  'this  is  the  victory  that  over- 
cometh the  world,  even  our  faith' — the  faith  that  fastens  to 
Christ,  the  great  overcomer  for  us,  and  appropriates  his  victory 
and  makes  it  our  own." 


ERRANT  MAN  AND    THE  INERRANT  BOOK      307 

"  I  go  into  my  garden  after  a  terrific  storm  and  find  that 
my  grape-vine,  which  for  years  had  climbed  into  the  sunhght 
and  basked  in  its  beams,  has  fallen  down,  its  leaves  all  torn 
and  its  boughs  bespattered  with  mud.  And  I  begin  to  talk 
to  my  vine :  '  O  vine,  thou  needest  to  be  pruned  and  enriched. 
I  must  pour  ashes  about  thy  roots  and  pour  water  above  thee 
to  cause  thee  to  revive,  and  then  thou  wilt  lift  thyself  into 
the  light  and  warmth.'  Then  I  do  my  best  at  pruning  and 
enriching,  but  each  day  as  I  walk  into  my  garden  I  see  the 
vine  lying  there.  It  stretches  up  its  tendrils,  indeed,  Hke  sup- 
plicating fingers  to  the  sky ;  but  because  it  can  find  nothing 
upon  which  to  lay  hold  it  still  creeps  on  the  ground. 

"  Suppose,  instead  of  talking  any  more  to  my  vine,  I  build 
a  trellis  upon  which  it  can  lift  itself  up  to  the  sunlight?  Ah, 
that  is  Christ's  method.  He  casts  a  glance  of  pity  upon  us 
and  says,  not  simply,  '  I  am  from  above  ;  ye  are  from  beneath. 
No  man  can  come  to  me  except  the  Father  draw  him;'  but 
hsten  :  '  I  have  loved  thee  with  an  everlasting  love  :  therefore 
with  loving-kindness  have  I  drawn  thee,'  says  Jehovah.  But 
how,  O  Father?  '  I  have  drawn  thee  with  the  cords  of  love, 
and  with  the  bands  of  a  man.'  But  what  love  and  what  man? 
I  will  tell  you.  '  This  is  my  beloved  Son  ;  hear  ye  him,'  and 
the  Son  says,  '  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me.' 
The  cross  is  the  divine  trellis  for  lifting  men's  affections  to 
God.  The  heart  that  was  striving  in  vain  to  love  the  Father, 
and  was  only  falling  back  to  earth  beaten  and  baffled  after 
each  effort,  finds  at  last  its  firm  support.  '  The  preaching  of 
the  cross  is  to  them  that  perish,  foolishness ;  but  unto  us  which 
are  saved,  it  is  the  power  of  God.' " 

"  '  If  any  man  preach  any  other  gospel  unto  yon  than  that  ye 
have  received,  let  him  be  accursed.''  This  makes  very  serious 
business  of  the  ministry— serious  in  view  of  the  fact  that  we 


3o8 


ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 


have  no  more  choice  as  to  what  kind  of  gospel  we  will  preach 
than  as  to  what  kind  of  money  we  will  use  to  pay  our  debts. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  '  another  gospel '  had  such  free 
course  and  was  so  glorified  among  us  as  now.  It  is  not  so 
much  open  infidelity  as  fictitious  Christianity  that  we  have  to 
fear — a  gospel  which  uses  all  the  phrases  and  exercises  all  the 
seeming  fervors  of  the  true  faith,  but  is  as  unlike  it  as  lead  is 
to  gold.  Indeed,  I  may  say  that  to-day  liberalism  has,  for 
the  most  part,  left  off  contending  and  taken  up  counterfeiting. 
One  of  the  most  artful  methods  of  issuing  spurious  currency 
is  to  take  a  gold  coin,  bore  into  it  and  dig  out  the  great  bulk 
of  the  gold,  and  then  fill  up  the  cavity  with  lead.  The  face 
of  the  coin  remains  intact,  but  the  heart  has  been  hollowed 
out. 

"  So  the  most  dangerous  theology  in  circulation  among  us 
to-day  is  an  evangelicalism  which  keeps  most  of  the  phrases 
of  orthodoxy,  and  yet  is  utterly  void  of  the  vital  substance 
thereof.  'Atonement!  Yes,  indeed,'  says  this  other  gospel. 
'  Jesus  Christ  is  the  martyr-man  of  the  race,  one  in  whom  the 
enthusiasm  of  humanity  kindled  to  such  intensity  that  it  con- 
sumed the  heart  from  which  it  proceeded,  giving  the  most 
splendid  example  of  self-sacrifice  which  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  Not  that  in  his  death  he  bore  the  curse  of  a  violated 
law !  Such  an  idea  spoils  the  poetry  and  pathos  of  his  martyr- 
dom, needlessly  embarrassing  it  with  the  theology  of  substitu- 
tion and  vicarious  satisfaction  for  human  guilt,  thereby  keep- 
ing alive  the  old  "offense  of  the  cross."  Divinity  of  Christ! 
Yes ;  with  all  the  heart  let  it  be  believed ;  and  since  by  his 
incarnation  Christ  became  our  kinsman  according  to  the  flesh, 
let  us  rejoice  in  "the  essential  divinity  of  human  nature"  also.' 
Thus,  whereas  in  a  former  generation  the  contention  was  for 
bringing  Christ  down  to  the  level  of  our  common  humanity, 
now  it  is  for  Hfting  up  our  common  humanity  to  the  level  of 
Christ.     And  so  is  brought  in  that  most  deadly  doctrine  of 


ERRANT  MAN  AND    THE  INERRANT  BOOK      309 

broad  Christianity,  that  'all  men  by  nature  are  sons  of  God,'  a 
doctrine  proclaimed  among  us  with  such  alluring  eloquence 
that  thousands  of  uninstructed  souls  imagine  they  hear  the 
ring  of  the  true  gospel  coin  in  what  is  really  only  the  prolonged 
resonance  of  an  old  Pelagian  heresy. 

"  We  fully  affirm  that  this  doctrine  is  not  only  contradicted 
by  all  Scripture,  but  disproved  by  all  human  experience.  '  As 
many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to  become  the 
sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name :  which 
were  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the 
will  of  man,  but  of  God.'  Here  is  sonship  to  God,  but  it  is 
predicated  solely  on  the  ground  of  the  new  birth,  the  solemn 
necessity  of  which,  as  announced  by  our  Lord,  bears  witness 
to  the  depravity,  not  to  the  divinity,  of  human  nature.  Can 
we  brave  it  out  with  God,  still  maintaining  in  the  face  of  ex- 
plicit Scripture  that  without  repentance  and  without  regenera- 
tion .  .  .  men  are  the  children  of  God?  Such  a  doctrine 
Milton  rightly  traces  not  to  Christ,  but  to  the  prince  of  fallen 
angels,  whom  he  makes  to  say : 

"  '  The  son  of  God  I  am,  or  was, 
And  if  I  was  I  am ;  relation  holds 
All  men  are  sons  of  God.'  " 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

EVOLUTION,    OR   THE   APPEARING? 

"  Progress  " — Review  of  Drummond's  "  A  City  without  a  Church" — The 
coming  of  Christ — Eschatology — The  Roman  Antichrist — The  resto- 
ration of  Israel — The  resurrection 

CLOSELY  allied  to  this  view  of  man's  moral  incompetency 
stands  the  doctrine  of  the  hopeless  inability  of  the  race 
to  attain  social  redemption.  The  vaunt  of  "progress  "  *  is  but 
the  echo  of  the  boast  of  self-righteousness.  Both  heresies  have 
their  common  source  in  the  self-esteem  of  the  human  heart. 
They  are  "  the  counterfeit  presentment  of  two  brothers,"  the 
face  and  obverse  of  the  same  false  coin.  Those  who  preach 
the  dignity  and  goodness  of  man  generally  minimize  the  ap- 
palling corruption  of  society,  and  explain  that  tragedy,  human 
history,  as  if  it  were  a  pleasant  drama  proceeding  through  five 
acts  to  a  delightful  denouement. 

This  was  not  Gordon's  attitude.  He  believed  that  the  pres- 
ent age  was  evil  and  would  remain  so  unto  the  end.     "Jesus 

*  To  quote  Amiel  once  more:  "The  plea  justificatory  of  progress  has 
a  criterion  that  is  quantitative,  that  is  to  say,  purely  exterior  (having  regard 
to  the  wealth  of  life),  and  not  qualitative  (the  goodness  of  life).  Always 
the  same  tendency  to  take  the  appearance  for  the  thing,  the  form  for  the 
substance,  the  law  for  the  essence ;  always  the  same  absence  of  moral 
personality,  the  same  obtuseness  of  conscience,  which  has  never  recog- 
nized sin  present  in  the  will,  which  places  evil  outside  of  man,  moralizes 
from  outside,  and  transforms  to  its  own  liking  the  whole  lesson  of  history." 
("  Journal  Intime,"  p.  60.) 

310 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE  APPEARING?  311 

did  not  say,"  he  wrote,  "  '  This  is  the  best  world  that  was  ever 
made  ;  things  are  growing  better  and  better ;  there  is  ten  times 
more  happiness  than  sorrow  on  the  earth.  Only  live  on  the 
sunny  side  of  the  house  and  keep  your  curtains  lifted  and  you 
will  be  all  right.'  No  such  optimistic  vaporing  as  this!  But, 
'  In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation.  Let  not  your  heart 
be  troubled.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you' — a  place  of 
deliverance.  Ah,  that  is  what  we  long  for — deliverance  from 
the  world's  great  crushing  machine,  with  its  wheels  of  war  and 
famine  and  pestilence  and  earthquake  and  alcohol  grinding 
men  to  powder  by  millions  every  year.  To  be  able  to  see 
God  behind  all  this  Satanic  discord,  and  to  beHeve  in  him  spite 
of  all  this  titanic  cruelty  of  the  elements,  is  not  always  an  easy 
thing.  .  .  .  Let  us  not  imagine  that  we  are  now  reigning  with 
Christ  on  earth  or  that  the  kingdom  of  God  has  been  set  up 
in  the  world.  The  church's  earthly  career  during  the  present 
age  is,  like  her  Lord's,  a  career  of  exile  rather  than  of  exalta- 
tion, of  rejection  rather  than  of  rule,  of  cross-bearing  rather 
than  of  scepter-bearing." 

The  permanency  and  sovereignty  of  evil  during  the  present 
age  was  one  of  his  deepest  convictions.  The  poor  we  have 
with  us  always,  but  there  are  others  too— their  oppressors, 
and  the  continuous,  unending  army  of  sin.  The  historical 
orbit  of  our  planet  is  no  more  than  its  astronomical  orbit  an 
upward  spiral.  Mankind  passes  century  after  century  through 
like  phases  of  sin  and  through  the  same  experiences  of  moral 
wretchedness.  Only  he  that  hangeth  the  stars  on  nothing 
and  holdeth  the  earth  as  a  very  little  thing  can  and  will  deflect 
its  course  finally  to  higher  planes. 

The  progress  which  seems  to  be  making  in  certain  periods 
of  the  world's  history  Gordon  felt  to  be  external  and  formal, 
a  mere  coating  of  the  surface  hiding  perilous  depths.  The 
present  age  he  believed  to  be  an  age  of  election.  Its  ultimate 
purposes  are  purely  disciplinary.     Human  society  is  the  earth 


312  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

in  which  the  plant  grows.  What  happens  to  it  is  immaterial, 
except  in  so  far  as  its  development  is  tributary  to  the  church 
of  Christ.  It  may  be  vastly  improved,  enriched  with  the  blood 
of  a  dozen  revolutions  and  a  score  of  liberation  wars ;  it  may 
be  weeded  of  numberless  noxious  and  parasitical  growths ;  it 
may  be  cleared  of  innumerable  stones  of  stumbling  and  rocks 
of  offense.  But  the  great  Gardener  is  thinking  not  of  his  plot, 
but  of  the  transcendently  beautiful  flower,  the  church  of  Christ, 
which  he  is  raising  on  it  with  tender  interest  and  solicitude. 
Like  the  Japanese  florist,  who  often  spends  fifty  months  on  a 
single  chrysanthemum  bush,  he  is  laying  out  on  it  the  care 
and  nurture  of  millenniums.  The  church  and  the  world  stand 
in  eternal  contrast  on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament.  Any 
attempt  to  make  the  one  coterminous  with  the  other  will  re- 
sult, as  in  the  past,  in  corrupting  the  church  down  to  the  level 
of  the  world  and  in  the  reduction  of  its  religio-thermal  line  to 
the  cold  temperatiue  of  secularism. 

That  Christianity  has  modified,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
the  world's  life,  and  that  it  will  continue  so  to  do,  he  of  course 
never  questioned.  "The  patient  sunbeam  brooding  over  the 
buried  seed  till  it  draws  out  the  hidden  germ  which  it  contains 
is  all  the  time  warming  the  surrounding  atmosphere."  But 
this  result  is  to  be  considered  as  entirely  subsidiary  to  the  pur- 
poses of  God  in  the  present  age.  "  Civilization  is  not  regen- 
eration. Civilization  puts  Christianity  into  the  world ;  regen- 
eration takes  man  out  of  the  world.  Civilization  attempts  to 
diffuse  God's  Hfe  and  truth  among  men ;  regeneration  separates 
men  unto  God.  The  one  process  is  pervasive;  the  other 
elective.  The  one  makes  men  better  citizens  of  earth ;  the 
other  makes  them  citizens  of  heaven."  The  blessing  which  the 
world  receives  from  the  church  is  thus  collateral,  for  the  latter 
is  not  destined  in  this  dispensation  to  establish  its  ideals  as 
recognized  statutes  for  the  control  of  mankind.  Its  position 
is  to  the  mass  of  men  now,  as  ever  since  the  day  of  the  cruci- 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE  APPEARING?  Z^Z 

fixion,  that  of  an  unwelcome  and  rejected  witness  to  unappre- 
ciated truth. 

This  insistence  on  the  Paulo-Calvinist  formula,  as  opposed  to 
what  might  be  called  the  formula  of  Rousseau,  found  expression 
in  a  criticism  of  Professor  Henry  Drummond's  "  A  City  with- 
out a  Church,"  so  cogent,  so  just,  and  so  scriptural  withal  that 
we  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  it  at  length.  It  is  an  admira- 
ble reply  to  those  who  are  so  taken  up  with  social  programs 
as  to  forget  the  program  of  the  ages  and  the  promise  of  Christ's 
appearing,  and  who,  like  our  first  parents  in  Blanco  White's 
sonnet,  are,  in  their  keen  interest  in  grasshopper,  tree,  and  leaf 
which  the  sun  reveals,  wholly  unconscious  of  the  starry  pos- 
sibilities which  it  conceals. 

"The  theology  of  the  Broad  Church  is  emphatically  an 
Elysian  theology,  at  whose  fountains  those  who  have  been 
embittered  by  the  rigorous  teaching  of  the  former  or  Puritan 
age  drink  and  forget  their  sorrows.  Its  preaching  is  as  idylHc 
as  that  was  dogmatic ;  and,  so  far  from  any  suspicion  of  a 
paradise  lost,  it  constantly  assures  us  that,  if  man  ever  fell  at 
all,  he  must  have  fallen  upward,  judging  by  his  present  goodly 
estate. 

"  Now  we  are  not  called  to  choose  between  optimism  and 
pessimism  in  rehgion.  The  mischief  comes  of  just  this  choos- 
ing; the  magnifying  of  the  hopeful  elements  in  Christianity 
and  in  common  life,  to  the  utter  ignoring  of  the  dark  and 
dreadful  facts,  and  vice  versa.  Indeed,  some  one  has  re- 
minded us  that,  etymologically,  heresy  signifies  a  dividing  or 
choosing — the  selecting  of  one  extreme  of  Christian  truth  to 
the  utter  ignoring  of  the  other  extreme.  And  one  need  only 
glance  through  the  history  of  dogma  to  observe  how  many 
of  the  great  heresies  have  been  exaggerated  half-truths  instead 
of  absolute  falsehoods.  A  true  theology  will  certainly  be  both 
pessimistic  and  optimistic ;  for  it  will  contain  within  its  scope 
the  doctrine  of  a  paradise  lost,  with  all  the  dreadful  conse- 


314  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

quences  past  and  present  issuing  from  man's  fall ;  and  also 
the  doctrine  of  a  paradise  regained,  wherein  shall  be  no  more 
sin  and  no  more  death. 

"  We  remember  listening  not  long  since  to  a  sermon  from 
the  honored  Bishop  of  Massachusetts,  who  has  just  passed 
away— noble  man  and  eloquent  preacher,  but,  as  one  of  his 
eulogists  has  claimed,  '  a  Broad-churchman  without  apology.' 
'  We  know  that  the  Son  of  God  has  come,'  was  the  text.  As 
he  went  on  in  its  unfolding,  there  was  the  rush  of  impassioned 
thought  and  fervent  speech  so  characteristic  of  the  speaker, 
bearing  the  great  congregation  irresistibly  onward  to  the  end. 
But  when  the  sermon  was  completed  one  hearer  began  to  re- 
flect in  silent  amazement  upon  what  had  been  said.  The  sum 
of  it  was  this,  that  the  King's  Son  had  been  sent  to  visit  an 
outlying  province  of  the  kingdom ;  that  at  the  tidings  of  his 
expected  coming  the  whole  people  were  filled  with  glad  ex- 
pectation; that  his  arrival  was  signaled  by  an  outburst  of 
popular  acclamation,  in  which  the  people  said  one  to  another, 
'  The  King's  Son  honors  us  with  a  visit.  He  is  our  prince ; 
we  are  brothers.  Let  his  coming  give  a  new  sense  of  our 
divine  sonship,  a  new  impulse  to  our  universal  brother- 
hood.' It  was  a  fascinating  picture,  and  painted  with  a  brush 
dipped  without  reserve  in  '  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity.'  To 
an  eminent  preacher  of  the  new  school,  who  was  afterward 
expressing  his  admiration  to  us,  we  replied,  *  Yes ;  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  when  the  King's  Son  came,  did  not  the  citizens 
hate  him,  and  send  a  message  after  him,  saying,  "  We  will  not 
have  this  man  to  reign  over  us"?  Did  they  not  say,  "This 
is  the  heir :  come,  let  us  kill  him  "?  ' 

"'Very  true,'  repHed  my  friend;  'but  you  must  remember 
that  the  preacher  is  an  idealist.' 

"  And  this  is  the  point  of  the  whole  matter.  We  are  bound 
to  be  realists  in  the  pulpit,  since  we  live  in  a  world  of  real  sin- 
ners in  danger  of  real  judgment— a  judgment  resting  on  the 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE  APPEARING?  315 

awful  but  real  fact  that  men  have  rejected  the  Son  of  God, 
whom  the  Father  sent  into  this  world  for  their  salvation. 
Idealism  in  poetry  and  in  romance,  if  you  please,  but  not  in 
the  sermon.  Not  that  one  should  be  a  pessimist  in  preaching 
any  more  than  an  optimist;  he  should,  above  all  else,  be  a 
truthist.  And  he  is  the  best  friend  of  humanity  who  rouses 
men  from  their  self-complacent  dreams,  and  confronts  them 
with  the  hard  facts  of  real  life  and  revealed  truth. 

"  We  doubt  if  any  Broad  Church  preacher  has  yet  measured 
up  to  the  superlative  optimism  of  Professor  Henry  Drummond. 
One  of  his  latest  discourses  lies  before  us  as  we  write  entitled 
'  A  City  without  a  Church,'  based  on  the  words  of  Revela- 
tion, '  I  John  saw  the  holy  city.  New  Jerusalem,  coming  down 
from  God  out  of  heaven.'  In  what  does  the  professor  find 
the  realization  of  this  lofty  vision?  Listen:  'This  city,  then, 
which  John  saw,  is  none  other  than  your  city,  the  place  where 
you  live,  as  it  might  be,  and  as  you  are  to  help  to  make  it.  It 
is  London,  Berlin,  New  York,  Paris,  Melbourne,  Calcutta,'  etc. 
In  a  word,  the  dream  is  that  by  sanitation,  by  drainage,  by 
ventilation,  by  education,  the  municipality  where  we  reside  is 
to  be  transfigured  into  a  veritable  city  of  God  on  earth.  The 
part  that  we  are  to  have  in  effecting  this  metropoHtan  evolu- 
tion is  very  glowingly  set  forth.  '  Begin  with  the  paper  on 
the  walls :  make  that  beautiful ;  with  the  air :  keep  it  fresh ; 
with  the  very  drains :  make  them  sweet ;  with  the  furniture : 
see  that  it  is  honest.  Abolish  whatsoever  worketh  abomina- 
tion in  food,  in  drink,  in  luxury,  in  books,  in  art ;  whatsoever 
worketh  a  lie  in  conversation,  in  social  intercourse,  in  corre- 
spondence, in  domestic  life.'  All  very  admirable  ;  but  it  is  the 
possible  evolution  of  New  York,  with  its  unspeakable  Tam- 
many rule  above  and  its  Stygian  pool  of  nameless  sin  be- 
neath, into  a  Jerusalem  the  Golden  which  staggers  our  ima- 
gination. 

"  And  this  is  what  is  dreamed  of  by  the  preacher :  '  What 


3l6  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

John  saw,  we  may  fairly  take  it,  was  the  future  of  all  cities.  .  .  , 
It  was  the  dream  of  a  new  social  order,  a  regenerate  humanity, 
a  purified  society,  an  actual  transformation  of  the  cities  of  the 
world  into  cities  of  God.'  Now  we  would  not  criticize  the 
amiable  philanthropy  by  which  this  transformation  is  proposed 
to  be  effected.  But  why  not  tell  exactly  what  John  did  see? 
If  it  is  worth  while  to  take  a  text,  why  not  expound  it  fairly  in 
its  relation  to  context  and  connection?  First,  John  saw  the 
earthly  city,  the  metropolis  of  Christendom,  as  commentators 
have  generally  held,  '  Babylon  the  great,'  which  has  '  become 
the  habitation  of  devils,  and  the  hold  of  every  foul  spirit,  and 
a  cage  of  every  unclean  and  hateful  bird,'  which  has  made 
'  all  nations  to  drink  of  the  wine  of  the  wrath  of  her  fornica- 
tion.' But  this  city,  so  far  from  showing  any  upward  de- 
velopment, goes  down  with  a  crash  under  the  accumulated 
weight  of  her  own  abominations. 

"  And  John  saw  an  angel  who  cried  mightily  with  a  strong 
voice,  saying,  'Babylon  the  great  is  fallen,  is  fallen!'  What 
a  text  is  here  for  one  who  would  preach  to  the  cities  of  the 
nineteenth  century!  What  an  enforcement  would  be  given 
to  it  by  citing  the  long  array  of  sister  cities,  from  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  to  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum,  which  have  sunk  in 
like  manner  beneath  the  wrath  of  God  against  their  accumu- 
lated sins!  And  what  a  tremendous  force  the  preacher's  warn- 
ing would  have,  after  setting  forth  this  solemn  teaching  of 
revelation  and  of  history,  if  he  were  to  cry  to  the  cities  of  to- 
day, '  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish'! 

"  Only  after  the  vision  of  the  fallen  city  comes  the  other 
of  the  New  Jerusalem  descending  from  God  out  of  heaven. 
How  significant  this  expression  in  our  preacher's  text!  The 
ideal  city  does  not  rise  up  by  evolution ;  it  comes  down  by 
revelation.  This  is  according  to  the  divine  way.  When  the 
race,  in  spite  of  all  God's  teaching,  tended  steadily  downward, 
redemption  was  effected  only  by  '  the  Son  of  man,  who  catne 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE  APPEARING?  317 

down  from  heaveji.''  When  natural  birth  gendered  only  to  sin 
and  death,  a  great  Teacher  appeared,  saying,  '  Except  a  man 
be  bom  from  above,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God.'  And 
when  the  history  of  great  cities  has  repeated  itself  century 
after  century,  in  luxury  ending  in  corruption,  and  corruption 
ending  in  doom,  God  sets  before  us  our  only  hope  of  munici- 
pal righteousness  and  holiness  in  a  city  '  commg  down  frofn 
God  out  of  heaven^ 

"  This  teaching  is  not  congenial,  but  it  is  convicting.  Tell 
men  the  exact  truth— that  when  God  sent  his  only  Son  into 
the  world  he  received  a  crucifixion  instead  of  a  coronation, 
and  that  therein  is  made  manifest  the  last  and  most  awful 
revelation  of  its  depravity ;  and  the  tendency  of  such  faithful 
preaching  will  be  to  make  men  despair  of  human  nature,  and, 
as  their  only  hope,  lay  hold  of  the  divine  nature.  Tell  men 
the  literal  fact  of  the  repeated  doom  and  decay  of  great  cities 
under  the  weight  of  social  depravity,  and  it  may  lead  them 
to  '  look  for  a  city  which  hath  foundations,  whose  builder  and 
maker  is  God.'  The  hard,  literal  truth  is  not  popular;  opti- 
mistic dreams  are  immensely  so.  Lord  Chesterfield's  maxim 
is  universally  true :  *  If  you  would  make  men  think  well  of 
you,  make  them  think  well  of  themselves.'  But  how  constantly 
is  it  the  mission  of  the  faithful  prophet  to  make  men  think 
meanly  of  themselves,  that  they  may  learn  to  think  well  of 
Christ! 

"  So  far  as  the  actual  facts  go,  there  is  no  evidence  that  the 
idyl  of  social  evolution  has  any  foundation.  Within  the  sphere 
of  conscious  experience  we  may  speak  dogmatically.  Saints 
are  not  evolved  from  sinners,  except  through  the  new  birth ; 
and  New  Jerusalems  are  not  evolved  from  municipal  Babylons 
by  improved  drainage  and  sanitation.  This  is  the  undoubted 
fact,  and  on  the  whole  we  deem  it  more  profitable  to  be  oc- 
cupied in  '  truthing  it  in  love '  than  in  dreaming  it  in  optimism." 

No  doubt  it  took  courage  to  assert  this  view  in  those  years, 


3i8  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

when  the  idea  of  "  progress  "  seemed  absolutely  to  override 
the  age.  In  later  years  the  drift  of  opinion  has  been  far  away 
from  the  speculative  optimism  formerly  prevailing.  This 
frame  of  mind,  as  Huxley  remarked  in  almost  his  last  message 
to  the  world,  "  is  met  with  more  commonly  at  the  tables  of 
the  healthy  and  wealthy  than  in  the  congregations  of  the 
wise."  *  It  was  enough  for  Gordon  that  the  New  Testament 
placed  our  hopes  in  something  far  greater  than  industrial  re- 
form or  diffused  education,  in  something  more  blessed  than  a 
Utopia  of  production  and  distribution,  where,  under  the  hap- 
piest conditions,  death  would  yet  yearly  slay  its  millions,  and 
disease  waste  and  torture  its  tens  of  millions,  and  sin  haunt 
and  trap  and  destroy.  A  New  Jerusalem  with  such  citizens 
would  be  the  hatefulest  of  nightmares.  It  adds  much  to  our 
interest  to  know  that  those  best  qualified  to  judge  concur  in 
his  belief  that  "  our  passion  for  progress  is  in  great  part  the 
product  of  an  infatuation  which  consists  in  forgetting  the  goal 
to  be  aimed  at,  and  in  absorbing  itself  in  the  pride  and  de- 
light of  each  tiny  step,  one  after  another."  t     The  verdict  of 

*  Sheldonian  address,  "  Ethics  and  Evolution."  "  The  theory  of  evo- 
lution encourages  no  millennial  anticipations.  If  for  millions  of  years  our 
globe  has  taken  the  upward  road,  yet  some  time  the  summit  will  be  reached 
and  the  downward  road  will  be  commenced.  The  most  daring  imagina- 
tion will  hardly  venture  upon  the  suggestion  that  the  power  and  intelli- 
gence of  man  can  ever  arrest  the  procession  of  the  great  year." 

t  Amiel,  "Journal  Intime,"  p.  169. 

For  example,  Bryce  says  ("  American  Commonwealth,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  733)  : 
"In  Europe,  whose  thinkers  have  seldom  been  in  a  less  cheerful  mood 
than  they  are  to-day,  there  are  many  who  seem  to  have  lost  the  old  faith 
in  progress ;  many  who  feel,  when  they  recall  the  experiences  of  the  long 
pilgrimages  of  mankind,  that  the  mountains  which  stand  so  beautiful  in 
the  blue  distance,  touched  here  by  flashes  of  sunlight  and  there  by  shadows 
of  the  clouds,  will,  when  one  comes  to  traverse  them,  be  no  Delectable 
Mountains,  but  scarred  by  storms  and  seamed  by  torrents,  with  wastes  of 
stone  above  and  marshes  stagnating  in  the  valleys." 

And  Professor  Seeley  in  like  vein:  "  The  creed  which  makes  human 


EVOLUTION,    OK    THE  APPEARING?  319 

history  is,  so  far  as  it  expresses  itself  on  such  matters,  ex- 
ceedingly dubious  as  to  the  way  society  is  moving  and  as  to 
the  distance  it  has  covered  toward  better  things.  Froude, 
Taine,  Bryce,  Carlyle,  Sir  Henry  Maine,  J.  E.  Thorold  Rogers, 
Professor  Seeley,  and  Mr.  John  Morley  are  but  a  few  of  those 
who  seem  to  regard  the  conception  of  progress  as  a  mirage.  His- 
tory ends,  indeed,  in  a  cul-de-sac  from  which  there  is  no  escape. 
But  it  is  just  here,  Dr.  Gordon  would  say,  that  in  the  New 
Testament  scheme  despair  is  transmuted  into  hope,  pessimism 
into  optimism.  The  escape  is  from  above.  As  man  was  re- 
deemed individually  by  the  first  coming  of  Christ,  so  he  is  to 
be  redeemed  collectively  and  socially  in  the  second  coming. 
Jesus  did  not  teach  us  to  pray  daily,  "  Thy  kingdom  come," 
only  to  mock  us  with  such  travesties  on  his  kingdom  as  prevail 
wherever  men  have  built  cities  and  founded  states.  If  it  were 
so,  there  are  not  a  few  who,  rather  than  face  a  future  such  as 
the  past,  would  long  to  see  Huxley's  "kindly  comet"  efface 
with  its  hot,  shrivehng  impact  this  suffering  planet.  But  it  is 
just  because  the  King  is  coming  in  the  power  of  his  kingdom 
that  we  can  patiently  endure  the  present  controlling  democracy 
of  lusts  and  crowding  selfishnesses  and  shouldering  vanities, 
with  its  "cries  and  counter-cries  of  feud  and  faction."  Even 
the  darkness  has  its  message  of  cheer.  "  The  shadows  point  to 
the  dawn.    As  I  wake  in  the  twilight  of  the  morning,  I  often 

nature  larger  makes  men  at  the  same  time  capable  of  profounder  sins ; 
admitted  into  a  holier  sanctuary,  they  are  exposed  to  the  temptation  of  a 
greater  sacrilege ;  awakened  to  the  sense  of  new  obligations,  they  some- 
times lose  their  simple  respect  for  the  old  ones ;  saints  that  have  resisted 
the  subtlest  temptations  sometimes  begin  again,  as  it  were,  by  yielding 
without  a  struggle  to  the  coarsest ;  hypocrisy  has  become  tenfold  more  in- 
genious and  better  supplied  with  disguises  ;  in  short,  human  nature  has 
inevitably  developed  downward  as  well  as  upward,  and  if  tke  Christian  ages 
be  compared  with  those  of  heathenism,  they  are  found  worse  as  well  as 
better,  and  it  is  possible  to  make  a  question  whether  mankind  has  gained 
on  the  whole."     ("  Ecce  Homo,"  p.  351.) 


320  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

see  the  glimmer  of  the  street-lamps  falHng  upon  the  walls  of 
my  chamber ;  but  in  a  little  while  the  lamp-lighter  passes  by 
and  turns  out  one  after  another,  leaving  the  room  in  deeper 
darkness  than  it  had  been  at  any  time  during  the  whole  night. 
Yet  I  know  that  he  is  only  putting  out  the  street-lamps  because 
the  sun  is  about  to  rise  and  flood  all  the  heavens  with  his  light. 
So  the  darkness  heralds  the  dawn." 

In  the  light  of  the  church's  present  attitude  on  this  subject, 
the  question  of  Jesus,  "  Shall  the  Son  of  man,  when  he  cometh, 
find  faith  on  the  earth?  "  seems  prophetically  suggestive.  For, 
as  the  careless  world  repudiates  Christ  in  his  capacity  of  Sav- 
iour, so  too,  largely,  the  church  denies  him  in  his  great  and 
ever-imminent  final  mission  to  mankind.  "The  Syrian  stars 
look  down  upon  a  grave  from  which  Jesus  never  rose."  This 
is  the  utterance  of  agnosticism.  "  The  Syrian  stars  look  out 
from  distances  through  which  Jesus  shall  never  come  again  in 
person."  This  is  the  utterance  of  the  dominant  Christianity. 
If  Christ  is  not  risen  our  faith  is  vain.  Yes,  and  if  Christ  is 
not  coming  our  faith  is  doubly  vain ;  for  the  risen  Lord  has 
then  denied  his  promises  and  broken  his  plighted  word.  With- 
out this  hope  we,  who  are  disillusioned  of  the  old  watch-cry, 
"  Progress,"  must  indeed  be  "  of  all  men  most  miserable." 

"  We  need  two  motives,  memory  and  hope,  to  keep  the  soul 
in  equilibrium.  Memory  must  constantly  draw  us  back  to  the 
cross,  and  hope  must  constantly  attract  us  forward  to  the 
crown,  if  our  hearts  are  to  be  kept  in  even  and  balanced  com- 
munion with  God.  As  the  waters  of  the  sea  are  held  between 
two  mighty  gravitations,  the  moon  now  drawing  those  waters 
toward  itself,  and  the  earth  now  drawing  them  back  again, 
thus  giving  us  the  ebbing  and  flowing  tide  by  which  our  earth 
is  kept  clean  and  healthful,  so  must  the  tides  of  the  soul's 
affection  move  perpetually  between  the  cross  of  Christ  and 
the  coming  of  Christ,  influenced  now  by  the  power  of  memory, 
and  now  by  the  power  of  hope." 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE   APrEARING?  321 

On  this  doctrine  Gordon's  voice  was  "  to  unawakened  earth 
the  trumpet  of  a  prophecy."  Hardly  a  sermon  was  preached 
without  some  allusion  to  "  the  glorious  appearing."  Never  a 
day  passed  in  which  he  did  not  prepare  himself  for  it,  in  which 
its  hastening  was  not  sought  for  with  prayer.  "  Yet  a  httle 
while  [how  Httle!  how  httle!],  and  he  that  shall  come  will 
come."  *  Those  who  know  him  will  not  soon  forget  the  pathos 
and  tenderness  with  which  he  used  to  introduce  the  untrans- 
lated words  {poov,  ooov)  into  his  reading  of  the  passage.  No 
Christian  of  the  early  chruch  ever  looked  with  more  assurance 
for  the  manifestation  of  the  Lord  in  the  clouds.  In  his  papers 
were  found  the  following  lines,  which  show  what  a  reality  the 
promise  of  Christ  was  to  him  personally,  and  how  earnestly 
he  cherished  the  hope  of  that  coming  which  some  day  will 
purple  the  whole  glad  east. 

TRANSLATED. 

I 

"  Day-dawn  and  morning  star, 
And  upward  call  for  me. 
Ring  out,  ye  bells  of  heaven,  clear  and  far. 
When  I  my  Lord  shall  see. 


'  Caught  up  to  meet  the  Lord 

With  sweep  of  angel  wing, 
No  winding-sheet  for  me,  or  house  of  sod! 

O  death,  where  is  thy  sting? 


'  Put  out  to  sea  no  more ; 

Drop  anchor,  furl  the  sail : 
My  storm-tossed  bark  at  last  has  reached  the  shore ; 

I'm  moored  within  the  veil." 

*  Heb.  X.  37. 


32  2  A  DON/RAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

Advocacy  of  this  doctrine  cost  him  much.  It  seems  to 
awaken  suspicion  and  lead  to  estrangement — this  great  doc- 
trine of  hope.  "  It  is  not  wanted,"  he  used  to  say,  "  by  a 
church  with  milHonaire  merchants  and  great  universities. 
But,  after  all,  it  was  for  the  assertion  of  this  doctrine  that 
Christ  at  the  last  was  crucified.*  The  servant  is  not  greater 
than  his  Lord,  and  should  not  complain  of  mere  ostracism." 
Having  the  almost  entire  consensus  of  learned  opinion  with 
him  as  to  New  Testament  teaching  on  the  subject,t  he  was 
content  to  wait  until  the  church  should  forsake  allegorizing 
and  spiritualizing  interpretations,  and  turn  back  to  the  hope 
in  its  literalness.  Meanwhile  he  always  cautioned  reasonable- 
ness and  balance  in  the  treatment  of  this  as  of  other  prophetic 
teaching. 

"  There  has  been  more  or  less  fanaticism  in  time  past  con- 
nected with  this  doctrine ;  and  that  may  be  a  testimony  to  its 
truth.  A  Chinese  proverb  says,  'Towers  are  measured  by 
their  shadows,  and  great  men  by  the  detraction  which  follows 
them.'  It  is  so  of  doctrines ;  those  that  are  most  compact 
with  truth  cast  the  deepest  shadows  of  superstition.  The  es- 
chatology  of  the  new-departure  theology  will  cast  no  shadow  ; 
it  is  so  vague  and  general  that  the  sunlight  will  easily  shine 
through  it.  But  those  who  hold  the  eschatology  of  the  first 
century  must  guard  it  sacredly  from  all  extravagance  and 
excess.  The  best  way  is  to  be  very  certain  about  the  fact  of 
the  Lord's  return  and  very  uncertain  about  the  time ;  to  pro- 
fess no  more  than  the  Scriptures  profess — that  we  know  neither 
the  day  nor  the  hour  when  the  Son  of  man  cometh." 

Nevertheless  he  beheved  that  the  New  Testament  gave 
significant  intimations  as  to  the  occurrences  which  should  pre- 

*  '  Hereafter  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of 
power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven."     (Matt.  xxvi.  64.) 

t  Godet,  Christlieb,  Pfleiderer,  Alford,  Ellicott,  Harnack,  Meyer, 
Oehler,  Stier  etc. 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE   APPEARING?  323 

cede  and  attend  the  second  coming.  In  days  when  it  is  the 
custom  to  mutilate  the  gospel  and  to  cast  aside  all  that  cannot 
be  made  to  accord  with  preconceived  opinions,  the  extent  and 
importance  of  New  Testament  prophecy  is  generally  over- 
looked. Those  who  dwell  on  the  predictions  in  Isaiah,  in 
Micah,  and  in  the  Psalms,  the  foregleams  of  Messiah's  com- 
ing, will  hear  httle  of  the  passages  in  Matthew,  Romans, 
Thessalonians,  and  the  Apocalypse  premonitory  of  his  return. 
Eschatology  is  to  most  Christians  an  Ultima  Thule,  a  far- 
away, acknowledged  fact,  yet  of  little  interest  in  every-day 
life.  Voyages  thither  are  the  most  adventurous  which  men 
can  make,  and  travelers  returning  thence  are  listened  to  with 
incredulous  ears. 

Yet  why  should  it  seem  a  strange  thing  that  God  should 
send  a  ray  of  light  through  history  to  guide  the  children  of 
light?  Surely  he  who  lives  beyond  and  above  the  time  relation 
to  which  we  are  subject,  and  to  whom  past,  present,  and  future 
are  one,  knows  the  last  as  perfectly  as  the  first.  May  he  not 
have  sent  from  Patmos  a  message  to  us  which  those  in  the 
Spirit  can  interpret,  just  as  he  has  sent  from  the  remotest  stars 
before  the  dawn  of  our  history  pencils  of  light  whose  story  the 
spectroscope  unseals  and  reads  to  us  late-born?  So  Gordon 
thought.  "  Fossil  sunlight,"  said  he,  "  is  what  Herschel  named 
anthracite  coal.  The  vast  stores  of  light  poured  out  upon  the 
globe  during  past  geological  ages  were  consolidated  and 
packed  away  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  because  this  busy  nine- 
teenth century,  with  its  myriads  of  railways  and  ocean  steamers 
and  manufactories,  would  need  them.  Have  you  thought 
how  large  a  proportion  of  both  Testaments  is  prediction?  And 
is  it  therefore  of  no  use  to  the  practical  working  church  of  to- 
day? Nay ;  the  vast  profusion  of  prophetic  light,  falling  upon 
the  minds  of  the  prophets  and  treasured  up  in  their  inspired 
pages,  may  soon  be  needed.  And  those  who  are  delving  in 
the  mines  of  eschatology,  instead  of  being  engaged  in  an  aim- 


324  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

less  and  profitless  toil,  may  be  providing  the  church  with  the 
needed  warmth  for  that  predicted  time  when  iniquity  shall 
abound  and  the  love  of  many  wax  cold,  and  with  light  for  the 
day  foretold  by  the  watchman  of  Idumea:  'The  morning 
Cometh,  and  also  the  night.'  "  * 

The  first  of  these  intimations  of  the  Lord's  near  approach 
he  found  in  the  universal  promulgation  of  the  gospel  which  is 
taking  place  in  our  day.  The  witnessing  churches  which  are 
being  planted  world  over  announce  the  coming  King  as  the 
fire-beacons  which  flashed  from  hilltop  to  hilltop  round  the 
whole  arc  of  the  .^gean  coast  proclaimed  the  fall  of  Troy  and 
the  return  of  Agamemnon  to  Argos.  Here  he  found  the  final 
and  urgent  motive  for  foreign  missionary  work.  If  one  be- 
lieves that  the  renovation  of  the  world  is  contingent  on  the 
return  of  Christ,  and  that  the  time  of  his  return  will  be  deter- 
mined, as  far  as  the  church  is  concerned,  by  a  witnessing  of 
the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  among  all  people,  no  expression  of 
doubt  as  to  the  preeminent  value  of  missionary  work  among 
the  brutalized  and  pagan  peoples  of  earth  can  deter  one  from 
any  self-sacr'fice  which  should  hasten  that  consummation. 
Now  this  was  what  Gordon  believed :  "  We  are  literally  the 
people  described  by  Paul  as  those  upon  whom  the  ends  of 

*  He  did  not  believe  that  the  Book  of  Revelation  was  written  by  a 
"  Deus  quidam  deceptor  "  to  befool  us  with  strange  symbology.  "Its 
weird,  mysterious  pages  contain,"  so  he  once  wrote,  '  the  whole  map  and 
delineation  of  the  church's  career  from  the  ascension  to  the  return  of  the 
Lord,  but  it  was  left  for  time  to  break  the  seals  of  this  book  and  to  dis- 
cover its  meaning.  It  is  like  the  sealed  orders  given  to  an  admiral  which 
he  is  not  to  open  till  he  is  on  the  sea.  And  as  now,  corresponding  to  this 
chart,  headland  after  headland  of  prophetic  history  has  been  descried,  they 
have  been  recognized  by  the  students  who  have  been  searching  what  and 
what  manner  of  time  the  Spirit  did  signify  in  penning  this  prophecy.  And 
though  they  have  read  no  announcement  of  day  or  hour  upon  them,  they 
have  found  them  displaying  the  same  cautionary  signal  with  which  the 
church  started,  '  Behold,  I  come  as  a  thief.'  " 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE   APEEARING?  325 

the  ages  are  come.*  We  are  living  at  the  terminal  point  of 
the  old  and  the  germinal  point  of  the  new,  and  happy  shall 
we  be  if  we  know  the  time  of  our  visitation." 

Again,  identifying  as  he  did  the  papacy — "  that  stupendous 
spider-web  which,  reaching  from  Goa  to  Acapulco  and  from 
heaven  to  hell,  o'ernets  the  souls  and  thoughts  of  men  " — with 
the  Antichrist  of  John,  he  naturally  found  in  its  loss  of  tem- 
poral rule  and  in  its  steady  decadence  suggestions  of  the  ap- 
proach of  him  who  should  destroy  it  altogether  with  the 
"  brightness  of  his  coming."  f  To  many  such  an  interpreta- 
tion will  seem  fantastic  and  obsolete,  the  worn  heritage  of  the 
wars  of  the  Reformation.  This  is  natural  enough  in  our  day 
when  the  papacy  constitutes  a  comparatively  unimportant  fig- 
ure, whose  weakness  is  acknowledged  in  its  policy  of  opportu- 
nism, and  whose  existence  would  be  half  forgotten  were  it  not 
for  its  assiduous  advertising  by  encyclicals.  Those  who  dep- 
recate this  Puritan  exegesis,  however,  forget  the  blackness 
and  vastness  of  the  shadow  which  this  institution  has  cast,  for 
a  space  of  time  covering  nearly  one  fourth  of  the  centuries, 
from  the  first  dawn  of  human  history.  They  forget  its  por- 
tentous crimes  against  light  and  the  inexpressible  savagery, 
lust,  and  deceit  which  have  here  incarnated  themselves.  No 
one  who  has  read  Gregorovius  and  Von  Ranke,  and  who  re- 
members the  literal  portraiture  of  history,  can  ever  complain 
of  this  identification  as  harsh.  Scientific  history,  with  its 
Bertillon-like  methods,  has  measured  and  photographed  this 
old  offender.  So  if  it  is  true  that  the  papacy  is  the  only  por- 
tent in  Christian  history  wicked  and  forbidding  enough  to 
answer  to  the  prophecy  of  Antichrist,  it  is  conversely  true  that 
no  theory  can  explain  this  grotesque  satanophany,  this  incred- 
ible perversion  of  early  Christianity,  except  that  which  con- 
siders it  a  predicted  and  mysteriously  predestined  device  for 
turning  the  truth  into  a  lie.  Surely  there  are  no  naturahstic 
*  I  Cor.  X.  II.  t  2  Thess.  ii.  8. 


326  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

grounds  on  which  this  bar  sinister  on  the  church  of  Christ  can 
be  accounted  for.  There  was  nothing,  surely,  in  the  content 
of  Christianity  as  preached  by  the  apostles  which  could  lead 
one  to  foresee  any  such  abnormal  development. 

The  movements  in  Israel,  too,  filled  Gordon  with  anticipa- 
tion. To  all  thoughtful  men  the  survival  of  the  Jewish  race 
must  seem  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  facts  in  history. 
The  shock  of  the  barbarian  invasions  was  so  intense  as  to  re- 
sult in  the  complete  evaporation  of  the  Greek  race ;  but  the 
Jew  has  remained,  as  those  preglacial  plants  and  butterflies 
which  still  linger  on  our  highest  peaks,  surviving  the  ages 
when  ice  covered  whole  continents  and  destroyed  all  other  life. 
And  what  centuries  of  brutal  persecution  he  has  since  under- 
gone! Greek  orthodoxy  and  Roman  Catholicism  have  been 
the  ceaselessly  turning  millstones  to  bray  and  pulverize  him. 
Yet  he  not  merely  survives,  an  indestructible  residuum  in  the 
retort  of  history ;  his  emergence  into  the  place  of  leadership 
is  one  of  the  striking  facts  of  present-day  life.  The  names 
of  David  Strauss,  Mendelssohn,  Heine,  Marx,  Neander, 
Gambetta,  Halevy,  Rothschild,  De  Hirsch,  Liebknecht, 
Rubinstein,  Disraeli,  Bebel,  Stendhal,  Ricardo,  Darmesteter, 
Franzos,  Goldmark,  Auerbach,  Joseph  Israels,  Emin  Bey, 
Bernard  Weiss,  Meyerbeer,  Lasalle,  Mendelijeff,  Edersheim, 
the  Saphirs,  Palakof,  Castelar,  Blum  Pasha,  and  a  host  of 
others,  are  suggestive  of  the  power  still  latent  in  the  race. 
For  a  Christian  to  doubt  the  extraordinary  future  in  store  for 
the  people  of  the  old  covenant  seems,  in  the  hght  of  the 
eleventh  of  Romans,  wholly  inexplicable.  For  him  to  question 
it  in  these  days  of  Jewish  renaissance  is  wilful  blindness.  To 
think  that  a  race  with  such  a  past  and  of  so  great  present 
vigor  is  to  be  forever  condemned  to  play  the  humiliating  role 
of  pawnbroker  and  vender  of  old  clothing  to  those  of  the  outer 
court  argues  a  mind  singularly  impervious  to  the  significance 
of  current  events.     "  Those  who  are  opposed  to  millenarian- 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE  APPEARING?  327 

ism,"  wrote  Gordon,  "seem  to  consider  Israel  as  a  factor  in 
God's  providence  utterly  eliminated,  nevermore  to  emerge. 
When  they  hear  any  discourse  on  the  subject  of  the  conver- 
sion or  regathering  of  Israel,  they  consider  it  quite  as  absurd 
as  it  would  be  for  one  to  suggest  the  revival  of  stage-coaches 
and  hand-weaving  after  a  half-century  of  railroads  and  looms. 
The  gathering  of  immense  wealth  into  the  hands  of  the  Jew, 
as  though  in  preparation  for  some  vast  demand  upon  his  re- 
sources soon  to  be  made ;  the  control  which  he  has  gained  of 
the  secular  press  in  European  countries ;  his  rapid  ascendancy 
in  the  sphere  of  politics  and  philosophy  all  over  the  world ;  his 
compHcity  in  the  revolutionary  and  antichristian  movements 
which  are  now  agitating  and  alarming  the  nations  ;  and,  lastly, 
his  expulsion  from  the  countries  where  he  has  dwelt  and  his 
visible  regathering  into  the  land  of  his  ancient  habitation — 
these  are  significant  premonitions  of  a  stupendous  and  long- 
predicted  event :  the  removal  of  the  veil  from  blinded  Israel 
and  the  looking  upon  him  whom  they  have  pierced." 

Gordon  found,  as  he  looked  with  straining  eyes  into  the 
approaching  years,  a  sort  of  historical  barometer  in  the  Jewish 
race.  Their  present  rapid  rise  he  felt  to  be  indicative  of  a 
fair  morning  ahead.  The  organization  of  the  Chovevi  Zion, 
with  its  hundreds  of  thousands  of  members  of  all  classes,  from 
the  Montefiores  and  Goldsmids  to  the  poorest  Polish  and 
Rumanian  schnorrers,  and  the  expressed  intention  of  its  con- 
stituency of  purchasing  and  repeopling  Palestine,  filled  him 
with  quivering  interest.  At  various  times  he  set  apart  in  his 
church  special  days  of  prayer  for  the  Jews.  For  the  some- 
what noisy  "  reformed  "  rabbis,  who  revile  their  own  great  past 
and  frivolously  throw  aside  the  promises  of  futiue  national 
restoration,  he  often  expressed  his  repugnance.  But  to  the  poor 
enmeshed  Talmudist  he  was  ever  ready  to  stretch  out  his  hand. 
His  interest  in  the  race  was  not  merely  exegetical.  Many  refu- 
gees from  eastern  Europe — outcasts  too  frequently,  with  the 


328  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

unlovely  traits  of  the  "  hungry  Greekling "  of  the  Lower 
Empire — he  helped  at  his  door  or  in  their  own  poor  homes. 

The  restitution  of  Israel  and  its  grafting  in  again  he  looked 
for  as  one  of  the  great  events  consequent  upon  Christ's  com- 
ing. But  the  advent  day  is  also  the  day  of  the  resurrection  — 
"that  blessed  last  of  deaths,  when  death  is  dead."  Here,  as 
before,  his  beliefs  were  those  of  the  early  church  untainted  by 
Hellenicisms.  Those  two  errors  of  an  earthly  theology,  "  that 
the  world  is  the  Christian's  home  and  that  the  grave  is  the 
Christian's  hope,"  were  unqualifiedly  rejected.  To  an  exposi- 
tion of  the  last  verse  of  the  eleventh  of  Hebrews  he  adds  this 
conclusion,  which  in  its  connection  may  seem  somewhat 
mystical,  but  which  is  in  its  main  teaching  scriptural : 

"  Bodily  perfection  as  well  as  spiritual  perfection  is  included 
in  the  idea  of  complete  sanctification.  As  the  earlier  martyrs 
must  wait  for  the  later  martyrs  before  they  can  receive  their 
full  consummation  of  blessedness,  so  must  the  renewed  soul 
wait  for  the  renewed  body  in  order  that  it  may  be  perfected. 
The  radical  error  in  our  consideration  of  the  subject  has  been 
that  we  have  fixed  our  attention  entirely  upon  the  spiritual 
part  of  man,  as  though  this  alone  were  the  '  I '  in  which  his 
personality  consists.  Because  our  eschatology  has  so  gener- 
ally overlooked  this  great  fact  and  substituted  the  doctrine 
of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  for  the  scriptural  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  man,  the  eye  has  been  fixed  on  death 
as  the  object  of  hope.  And  because  our  dying  is  held  to  re- 
lease the  soul  from  its  gross  environment  of  flesh,  this  event 
has  been  made  the  goal  of  the  spirit's  perfection.  But  is 
death  the  great  sanctifier?  No ;  it  is  only  when  the  glorified 
soul  is  united  to  the  glorified  body  that  we  shall  awake  satis- 
fied in  his  likeness — an  instantaneous  photograph  of  Christ 
wrought  in  his  memoers — the  predestined  purpose  of  redemp- 
tion, that  we  should  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  his  Son, 
consummated  at  last  in  a  flash  of  advent  glory. 


EVOLUTION,    OR    THE  APPEARING?  329 

"  Those  who  have  not  watched  the  trend  of  opinion  on  this 
point  have  h'ttle  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  even  in  orthodox 
ranks  the  Swedenborgian  notion  of  ehmination  has  supplanted 
the  primitive  doctrine  of  resurrection.  Instead  of  holding  that 
at  the  sound  of  the  last  trump  God  '  will  quicken  your  mortal 
bodies  by  his  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you,'  it  is  becoming  very 
common  to  maintain  that  at  death  a  spiritual,  incorporeal  sub- 
stance is  released  from  the  body.  Thus  one's  death  is  his 
resurrection,  since  in  that  event  an  imprisoned  spiritual  body 
breaks  its  shell  and  comes  forth  like  the  butterfly  from  the 
chrysalis.  It  is  not,  therefore,  the  angel's  trumpet  calling  the 
dead  from  the  grave  that  ushers  in  the  resurrection,  but  the 
sexton's  bell  tolling  the  dead  to  the  grave.  This  notion  seems 
to  result  largely  from  that  ultra-spiritualism  which  would  rule 
the  body  out  of  all  recognition  in  the  work  of  redemption. 
There  is  a  kind  of  Manichean  contempt  for  flesh  and  bones, 
and  a  feeling  that  it  is  gross  materialism,  to  assign  them  any 
place  in  the  glorified  life." 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


IN    LABORS    ABUNDANT 


Address  before  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  1890 — Church  unity — Personal 
experience  of  faith  healing — Work  in  Chicago,  1890  and  1893 — The 
World's  Fair  campaign — Rabinowitz 

IN  the  winter  of  1890  the  Evangelical  Alliance  met  in  Bos- 
ton. It  fell  to  Dr.  Gordon  to  give  the  address  of  welcome 
to  the  delegates.  A  portion  of  the  address,  illustrating  his 
opinions  on  certain  of  the  important  questions  with  which  the 
conference  had  to  deal,  we  transcribe  here. 

After  a  few  introductory  sentences  on  the  significance  of 
these  cooperative  religious  movements,  he  said : 

"I  have  therefore  few  tears  to  shed  with  those  who  are 
weeping  over  '  the  scandal  of  a  divided  Christendom,'  as  the 
phrase  is.  True,  a  church  divided  into  manifold  sects  is  not 
the  ideal  church ;  it  is  not  the  church  which  our  Lord  inaugu- 
rated in  the  beginning,  and  it  is  not  the  church  for  which  he 
prayed  in  the  end.  But  as  the  strength  of  Christ  is  made  per- 
fect in  our  weakness,  so,  I  doubt  not,  the  unity  of  Christ  will 
finally  be  made  perfect  through  our  divisions.  If  a  divided 
church  meant  a  divided  Christ,  we  might  well  lament  and 
weep  over  the  sects  of  Christendom ;  but  if  these  sects  hold 
the  Head,  this  cannot  be  the  case.  As  a  handful  of  quick- 
silver flung  to  the  earth  breaks  into  a  hundred  separate  glob- 
ules reflecting  a  full-orbed  sun,  so,  though  by  disruptions  and 

330 


IN  LABORS  ABUNDANT  331 

revolutions  and  reformations  the  church  has  been  broken  into 
a  hundred  sects,  each  sect  may  hold  in  the  bosom  of  its  faith 
a  full-orbed  Christ. 

"  Therefore  I  beg  you  to  reflect  that  for  the  last  hundred 
years  our  ascended  Lord  has  been  showing  what  he  can  do 
through  a  divided  church ;  thus  bringing  higher  glory  to  him- 
self out  of  what  many  regard  as  a  most  lamentable  evil. 
'  Divide  and  conquer '  is  a  maxim  of  skilful  generalship. 
What  if  our  great  commander  has  said  to  his  church,  '  Be 
divided  and  conquer '?  I  cannot  otherwise  translate  the  prov- 
idence of  the  nineteenth  century. 

"  The  door  of  every  nation  under  heaven  was  to  be  opened 
during  this  hundred  years ;  but  the  experience  of  all  history 
proves  that  had  the  church  been  outwardly  one,  a  conservative 
organic  unity,  holding  all  its  parts  together  and  moving  them 
according  to  a  uniform  law  of  action,  she  would  have  been 
unequal  to  the  task  of  entering  these  doors  and  conquering 
these  nations. 

"  But  look  again.  These  sects  have  put  into  the  field  one 
hundred  and  forty-six  foreign  missionary  societies,  which  are 
now  operating  along  various  lines  and  by  divers  methods  for 
giving  the  gospel  to  the  world.  By  the  division  of  labor  provi- 
dentially arranged  the  Scriptures  have  been  translated  into  two 
hundred  and  eighty  dialects,  the  work  of  translation  having 
progressed  so  rapidly  that,  as  we  close  the  ninth  decade  of 
this  century,  we  find  the  Bible  accessible  to  nine  tenths  of  the 
entire  human  family. 

"  Observe,  too,  how  the  Christian  forces  have  been  deployed, 
as  though  an  invisible  commander  had  been  arranging  for  his 
final  campaign.  There  are  forty  missionary  societies  operat- 
ing in  India,  thirty-three  in  China,  thirty-four  in  Africa.  Is 
there  any  likelihood  that  there  would  be  a  tenth  of  this  num- 
ber in  the  three  fields,  or  a  hundredth  of  the  men  whom  they 
employ,  if  there  were  only  one  great  and  all-inclusive  church 


332  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

to  which  the  evangehzation  of  the  world  was  intrusted?  Take 
the  Dark  Continent,  for  example.  Thirty-three  regiments  of 
the  Protestant  army  have  completely  invested  it,  as  though  all 
ready  to  move  inward  for  its  final  conquest.  '  The  nineteenth 
century  has  made  the  African  free,'  says  Victor  Hugo ;  '  the 
twentieth  is  to  make  him  a  man.'  But  he  cannot  be  a  man 
except  he  is  made  acquainted  with  the  divine  Man,  who  alone 
can  strike  the  fetters  from  his  soul  as  he  struck  the  chains 
from  his  body.  'Is  Christ  divided?'  asked  the  apostle  cen- 
turies ago.  And  from  hundreds  of  missionary  fields  the  answer 
comes  to-day,  '  Yes,  divided  only  that  he  may  be  the  more 
completely  distributed  to  a  starving  world.'  And  over  all  we 
seem  to  see  our  risen  Lord,  holding  in  his  pierced  hands  the 
fragments  of  his  mystical  body,  the  church,  and  saying  to  the 
hungry  nations,  '  This  is  my  body  broken  for  you.' 

"  But  one  may  say,  '  Yes ;  but  think  of  the  wreck  of  doc- 
trine and  the  discord  of  faith  which  have  been  brought  about 
by  this  disruption  of  the  church.  True  ;  but  what  of  the  gains 
which  have  come  out  of  this  great  loss?  In  the  disintegra- 
tion of  the  church  a  vast  amount  of  free  thinking  and  cheer- 
less speculat'on  has  been  set  free,  even  as  the  cold  is  liberated 
by  the  breaking  up  of  a  solid  block  of  ice.  But  the  question 
is,  Has  the  ultimate  temperature  of  Christianity  been  lowered 
or  raised  by  the  process?  It  is  a  magnificent  answer  which 
Professor  Dollinger  makes  to  those  who  point  to  the  succes- 
sive waves  of  deadly  rationalism  which  have  swept  over  Ger- 
many in  the  last  three  hundred  years,  as  a  convincing  proof 
of  the  criminal  evil  of  that  church  disruption  brought  about 
by  Luther  and  his  fellow-reformers.  Admitting  the  evil  of 
the  rationalism,  Dr.  Dollinger  replies  that,  nevertheless,  nine 
tenths  of  all  the  best  exegesis  and  the  best  theology  of  Ger- 
many has  been  contributed  by  this  Protestant  church  which 
Luther  led  out  from  Rome.  Here  is  a  confirmation  of  the 
same  idea  of  disunity  working  out  the  highest  unity.     The 


IN  LABORS  ABUNDANT  333 

full  beauty  of  a  ray  of  light  never  appears  till  it  has  been 
broken  in  the  prism.  So  the  harmony  and  glory  of  divine 
truth  is  destined  to  be  made  fully  manifest  only  through  the 
refraction  which  it  has  suffered  in  its  sectarian  divisions." 

The  address  closed  with  the  following  appeal  in  behalf  of 
the  poor  and  of  the  oppressed : 

"  Upon  the  great  questions  that  are  now  agitating  society 
we  find  a  characteristic  temptation  belonging  to  the  olden  age, 
one  that  was  recorded  concerning  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ— 
'  Command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread.'  The  great  art 
of  the  adversary  is  to  turn  us  Christians  from  soul-winners  into 
bread-winners,  to  take  the  lower  stratum  of  society  and  grind 
it  up  between  the  upper  and  nether  millstone  of  power  and 
capital,  so  that  God  may  have  to  say  again,  '  Have  all  the 
workers  of  iniquity  no  knowledge?  who  eat  up  my  people  as 
they  eat  bread,  and  call  not  upon  the  Lord  ?  '  '  Connnajid 
that  these  stones  be  made  bread.'  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
speaks  just  the  opposite  word :  '  God  is  able  of  these  stones 
to  raise  up  children  unto  Abraham.'  Stones  they  are,  rough 
and  uncouth,  but  they  can  be  turned  into  living  stones,  builded 
together  for  an  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit.  Stones 
they  are :  but  under  the  discipline  of  God's  hand  they  can  be 
made  into  corner-stones,  polished  after  the  similitude  of  a 
palace.  Stones  they  are :  but  in  the  hands  of  the  great  Lapi- 
dary they  may  be  made  to  adorn  his  breastplate  and  shine 
with  nameless  beauty — topaz  and  beryl  and  jacinth,  each  giv- 
ing a  different  color  to  set  forth  the  glory  of  the  Lord." 

In  the  fall  of  this  year  Dr.  Gordon  underwent  certain  per- 
sonal experiences  which  were  to  him  ever  after  as  a  divine 
imprimatur  upon  the  doctrine  of  healing  by  faith  which  he 
advocated.  These  experiences  were  not  indeed  the  first  of 
their  sort.  Frequently  in  his  letters  references  are  made  to 
relief  from  serious  sicknesses  obtained  in  this  way. 

"  I  had  a  sudden  attack  of  the  grippe,"  he  writes  during  an 


334  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

epidemic  of  that  disease — "high  fever,  chills,  sore  throat,  pain 
in  bones,  headache,  all  coming  on  at  three  in  the  morning, 
when  I  had  retired  perfectly  well.  But  I  determined  that 
Satan  should  not  get  the  advantage,  committed  the  case  to 
the  great  Physician,  and  determined,  in  spite  of  much  advice, 
to  preach  on  Sunday.  So  I  did,  and  found  no  trouble.  All 
the  difficulty  is  gone,  praise  the  Lord ! " 

And  at  another  time : 

"  Many  are  sick  among  us  of  influenza.  I  was  taken  vio- 
lently, but  I  called  upon  the  Lord,  and  though  there  was  a 
little  time  of  waiting,  when  the  cure  came  it  swept  the  trouble 
away,  so  that  not  a  trace  remained  behind.  This  is  contrary 
to  common  experience  with  this  disease.  But  my  Physician 
made  short  work  of  the  case." 

In  the  case  to  which  we  now  refer  the  sickness  was  of  so 
radical  a  character  and  the  cure  so  complete  and  effectual  that 
the  fact  of  divine  intervention  can  hardly  be  doubted.  For 
several  years  he  had  been  subject  to  a  severe  and  agonizing 
neuralgia  of  the  solar  plexus.  The  attacks,  occasional  at  first, 
became,  cis  time  passed,  more  and  more  frequent  and  more 
and  more  distressing.  Each  one  was  followed  by  days  of 
complete  exhaustion.  Medical  applications,  rest,  in  fact, 
everything  suggested,  were  tried  without  any  permanent  relief. 
In  the  winter  of  1890  Mr.  Moody  had  arranged  for  an  ex- 
change of  work  with  him,  it  being  provided  that  he  should 
lecture  in  the  Chicago  Training-school  for  one  month.  The 
neuralgic  spasm,  which  was  due  now  every  second  month,  had 
been  endured,  and  no  further  trouble  was  for  the  present  ex- 
pected. A  few  days,  however,  before  the  time  appointed  for 
starting  another  terrible  and  wholly  unlooked-for  attack  com- 
pletely prostrated  the  sufferer.  A  conference  was  held,  and 
it  was  decided  that  the  Chicago  project  must  be  abandoned. 
The  physician  present  declared  his  conviction  that  the  disease 
was  now  chronic,  that  the  intervals  between  the  seizures  were 


/yV  LABORS  ABUNDANT  335 

likely  to  narrow,  and  that  the  continuance  of  Hfe  was  but  a 
question  of  time  and  of  the  natural  resources  of  physique.  At 
the  earnest  request  of  the  patient  appeal  was  now  carried  up 
to  God  himself.  The  sick  man  was  anointed  according  to 
the  commandment.  His  own  prayers  were  accompanied  by 
those  of  the  few  Christian  friends  about  the  bedside.  Shortly 
after  he  rose  up  dressed,  and  went  to  his  study  in  the  room 
below.  The  pain  had  somewhat  subsided,  yet  it  still  ran 
strong  in  undercurrent.  As  he  stood  in  front  of  the  mantel, 
leanmg  and  resting  on  it,  he  was  suddenly  seized  by  an  awful 
paroxysm— the  most  intense  that  he  had  ever  experienced. 
It  was  as  if  the  demon  of  sickness  were  tearing  him  griev- 
ously for  the  last  time— for  it  was  the  last  time.  Never  again 
did  it  enter  the  precincts  of  that  body.  The  following  week 
Gordon  left  for  Chicago.  For  a  whole  month  he  lectured 
daily  to  the  students,  preparing  the  lectures  as  he  proceeded, 
preaching  twice  or  thrice  each  Sunday,  conducting  evening 
meetings  during  the  week,  and  writing  in  the  snatches  of  leisure 
his  little  book,  "  Faith— the  First  Thing  in  the  World."  Four 
more  years  passed  before  his  death,  years  of  extraordinary 
burden-bearing.  Not  the  slightest  intimation  of  the  old 
chronic  difficulty  ever  intruded.  Never  in  all  his  life  had  he 
such  a  wealth  of  physical  resource  wherewith  to  perform  the 
tasks  laid  on  him,  and  accompanying  physical  healing  there 
entered  into  him  a  new  tide  of  spiritual  life  and  blessing. 

The  summer  of  '93  found  Dr.  Gordon  again  in  Chicago, 
lecturing  to  the  students  of  the  Bible  Institute  and  preaching 
in  the  great  meetings  which  Mr.  Moody  had  organized  in  that 
city.  These  meetings  were  designed  to  reach  the  millions 
visiting  the  Exposition.  Four  theaters,  five  tents,  and  many 
churches  were  jammed  every  evening  and  several  times  on 
Sunday  with  strangers  from  all  parts  of  the  earth.  Thirty- 
eight  preachers,  evangelists,  and  singers  instructed  the  multi- 
tudes, while  several  hundred  students  in  residence  cooperated 


336  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

in  an  endless  variety  of  house-to-house  and  highway-and-hedge 
effort.  The  Fair  was  finally  closed  on  Sunday,  after  an  ex- 
hibition on  the  part  of  the  managers,  upon  the  shamelessness 
of  which  there  is  no  need  to  dilate  here.  The  people  refused 
to  go  in  sufficient  numbers  to  warrant  Sunday  opening.  But 
the  evangelistic  services  secured  a  Sabbath  attendance  of  more 
than  thirty-five  thousand  and  an  entire  weekly  attendance  of 
not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand.  Even  the  great  show- 
man Forepaugh  was  obliged  to  capitulate  to  Mr.  Moody. 
The  circus  tents,  which  had  been  opened  for  Sunday  amuse- 
ment, were  handed  over  without  charge  and  forthwith  filled 
by  ten  thousand  people. 

For  a  whole  month  Gordon  preached  to  hungry  thousands, 
teaching  all  the  while  at  the  school  on  Institute  Place.  The 
influence  of  this  work  of  Mr.  Moody  and  his  assistants  was 
very  far-reaching,  and  important  in  the  life  of  thousands.  The 
attention  of  the  press  and  of  the  public  was  of  course  turned 
upon  the  "  Parliament  of  Rehgions,"  with  its  cardinal's  tea- 
gown,  its  shaven-pated  bonzes,  and  its  facile  sub-truthful  Cal- 
cutta babus.  This  to  the  novelty-seekers  was  the  most  impor- 
tant "'nligious  "  feature  of  that  summer  in  Chicago.  But  of 
this  heterogeneous  assembly  most  men  who  know  the  East — 
the  obscenities  of  Benares,  the  linga-worship  of  Muttra,  the 
degraded  beggary  of  Mandalay,  to  say  nothing  of  present-day 
Islamism  in  Armenia— cherish  convictions  not  flattering  either 
to  its  promoters  or  co  its  participants.  Gordon  himself  regarded 
the  proceedings  as  thoroughly  misleading  in  their  appraisement 
of  non-Christian  systems,  and  as  gratuitously  disheartening 
to  the  representatives  of  our  Lord  among  the  heathen.  The 
strangers  whom  he  welcomed  and  with  whom  he  consorted 
were  of  a  very  different  type.  None  interested  him  more  than 
a  visitor  from  Bessarabia,  Joseph  Rabinowitz,  whom  Delitzsch 
considered  the  most  remarkable  Jewish  convert  since  Saul  of 


IN  LABORS  ABUNDANT  337 

Tarsus.  In  a  few  notes  Gordon  describes  his  conversations 
with  this  Israelite  of  the  new  covenant. 

"  Going  to  Chicago  in  July  last  for  a  month's  service  in  con- 
nection with  Mr.  Moody's  World's  Fair  evangehzation  cam- 
paign, we  found  ourselves  at  our  lodgings  placed  in  the  next 
room  to  a  Russian  guest,  whose  name  was  not  yet  told  us. 
Hearing  in  the  evening  the  strains  of  subdued  and  fervent 
Hebrew  chanting,  we  inquired  who  our  neighbor  might  be, 
and  learned  that  it  was  one  Joseph  Rabinowitz,  of  Russia. 
Thus,  to  our  surprise,  we  found  ourselves  next  neighbor  to  one 
whom  we  would  have  crossed  the  ocean  to  see,  with  only  a 
sliding  door  now  between  us.  Introduction  followed,  and  then 
three  weeks  of  study  and  communion  together  concerning  the 
things  of  the  kingdom,  the  memory  of  which  will  not  soon 
depart. 

"  It  seemed  to  us,  as  we  talked  day  after  day  with  this  Is- 
raelite without  guile  and  heard  him  pour  out  his  soul  in  prayer, 
that  we  had  never  before  witnessed  such  ardor  of  aflFection  for 
Jesus  and  such  absorbing  devotion  to  his  person  and  glory. 
We  shall  not  soon  forget  the  radiance  that  would  come  into 
his  face  as  he  expounded  the  Messianic  psalms  at  our  morn- 
ing or  evening  worship,  and  how,  as  here  and  there  he  caught 
a  glimpse  of  the  suffering  or  glorified  Christ,  he  would  suddenly 
lift  his  hands  and  his  eyes  to  heaven  in  a  burst  of  admira- 
tion, exclaiming,  with  Thomas  after  he  had  seen  the  nail-prints, 
'  My  Lord  and  my  God."  So  saturated  was  he  with  the  letter 
as  well  as  with  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptiu"es  that  to  hear 
him  talk  one  might  imagine  it  was  Isaiah  or  some  other  pro- 
phet of  the  old  dispensation.  '  What  is  your  view  of  inspira- 
tion? '  we  once  asked  him,  in  order  to  draw  him  out  concern- 
ing certain  much-mooted  questions  of  our  time.  '  My  view 
is,'  he  said,  holding  up  his  Hebrew  Bible,  '  that  this  is  the 
Word  of  God ;  the  Spirit  of  God  dwells  in  it.     When  I  read 


338  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

it  I  know  that  God  is  speaking  to  me,  and  when  I  preach  it 
I  say  to  the  people,  "  Be  silent,  and  hear  what  Jehovah  will 
say  to  you."  As  for  comparing  the  inspiration  of  Scripture 
with  that  of  Homer  or  of  Shakespeare,  it  is  not  a  question  of 
degree,  but  of  kind.  Electricity  will  pass  through  an  iron  bar, 
but  it  will  not  go  through  a  rod  of  glass,  however  beautiful 
and  transparent,  because  it  has  no  affinity  for  it.  So  the  Spirit 
of  God  dwells  in  the  Word  of  God,  the  Holy  Scriptures,  be- 
cause these  are  his  proper  medium,  but  not  in  Homer  or 
Shakespeare,  because  he  has  no  affinity  with  these  writings.' 

" '  Do  you  know  what  questioning  and  controversies  the 
Jews  have  kept  up  over  Zechariah  xii.  10?  '  he  asked  one  day. 
' ''  They  shall  look  upon  me  (n  n)  whom  they  have  pierced." 
They  will  not  admit  that  it  is  Jehovah  whom  they  pierced. 
Hence  the  dispute  about  the  whom;  but  do  you  notice  that  this 
word  is  simply  the  first  and  last  letters  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet, 
Aleph,  Tav?  Do  you  wonder,  then,  that  I  was  filled  with 
awe  and  astonishment  when  I  opened  to  Revelation  i.  7,  8, 
and  read  these  words  of  Zechariah,  now  quoted  by  John, 
"Behold,  he  cometh  with  clouds;  and  every  eye  shall  see 
him,  and  they  also  which  pierced  him;"  and  then  heard  the 
glorified  Lord  saying,  "I  am  Alpha  and  Omega"?  Jesus 
seemed  to  say  to  me,  ''  Do  you  doubt  who  it  is  whom  you 
pierced?  I  am  the  Aleph  Tav,  the  Alpha  Omega,  Jehovah, 
the  Almighty." ' 

"  Nothing  could  be  more  thrilling  and  pathetic  than  to  hear 
this  latter-day  prophet  of  Israel  dilate  on  the  blessedness  and 
glory  of  his  nation  when  it  shall  at  last  be  brought  back  into 
favor  and  fellowship  with  God.  '  The  Gentile  nations  cannot 
come  to  their  highest  blessing  till  then,  nor  can  our  rejected 
and  crucified  Messiah  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be 
satisfied  till  his  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh  shall  own  and 
accept  him.'  Then,  with  a  dramatic  fervor  and  pathos  im- 
possible to  describe,  he  made  the  following  beautiful  com- 


IN  LABORS  ABUNDANT  339 

ment :  '  Jesus,  tWfe  glorified  liead  of  the  church,  is  making  up 
his  body  now.  Think  you  that  my  nation  will  have  no  place 
in  that  body?  Yes;  the  last  and  most  sacred  place.  When 
from  India's  and  China's  millions,  and  from  the  innumerable 
multitudes  of  Africa,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea  the  last  Gentile 
shall  have  been  brought  in  and  Christ's  body  made  complete, 
there  will  still  be  left  a  place  for  httle  Israel ;  she  will  fill  up 
the  hole  in  his  side — that  wound  which  can  never  be  closed 
till  the  nation  which  made  it  is  saved.' " 

The  deep  affection  which  grew  up  between  the  two  may  be 
measured  by  the  following  brief  note : 

"  Kishenev,  March  II,  1895. 

"  Dear  Mrs.  Gordon  :  The  most  sad  news  in  the  paper, 
'  The  Christian  Herald,'  about  the  death  of  youi'  dear  hus- 
band, my  unforgotten  friend.  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon,  reached  me 
this  morning.  I  was  so  overwhelmed  with  grief  that  for  half 
an  hour  I  could  not  keep  back  the  tears.  My  wife  and  daugh- 
ter, seeing  me  so  broken-hearted,  could  not  help  shedding  tears 
also,  saying  to  each  other,  '  See  how  he  loved  him.' 

"  I  assure  you,  dear  Mrs.  Gordon,  that,  far  away  over  the 
ocean  at  Kishenev  in  South  Russia,  there  is  a  heart  deeply 
sympathizing  with  you  in  your  bereavement,  and  lamenting 
with  all  those  who  personally  knew  dear  Dr.  Gordon  and  ex- 
perienced his  gentle  Christian  love.  I  shall  never  forget  those 
happy  moments  we  spent  together  in  Chicago.  I  remember 
well  with  what  joy  he  looked  forward  to  the  restoration  of 
Israel,  to  Jesus'  appearing  in  glory.  .  .  .  He  is  now  in  the 
bosom  of  Abraham  enjoying  the  nearness  of  his  Lord  Jesus, 
whom  he  served  so  faithfully. 

"Joseph  Rabinowitz." 


CHAPTER  XXV 

FOR  THE  HEALING  OF  THE  NATIONS 

Work  among  the  Jews— The  Chinese  mission  at  Clarendon  Street — Inci- 
dents— The  transition  to  a  spiritual  church  life 

DR.  GORDON  had,  as  has  been  suggested  in  the  discus- 
sion of  his  theology,  an  especial  interest  in  the  future  of 
Israel.  Work  among  the  Jews  ever  appealed  to  him,  and  was 
carried  on  with  much  vigor  in  his  church.  In  the  letters  which 
follow  we  get  a  vivid  impression  of  the  character  of  this  work. 
They  are  like  leaves  from  that  part  of  the  Acts  which  describe 
the  great  apostle's  experiences  among  the  contentious,  "  stiff- 
necked  "  children  of  the  synagogue  in  Derbe,  in  Lystra,  and 
in  Thessalonica. 

"  We  had  a  great  day  yesterday — house  filled  to  the  doors 
both  morning  and  evening.  The  special  feature  of  the  evening 
was  the  baptism  of  our  second  Hebrew  convert.  Fifty  Jews 
at  least  were  present,  and  at  the  close  a  large  number  came 
into  the  after-meeting.  The  Christian  Hebrews  bore  witness 
for  Christ;  then  the  unconverted  Hebrews  began  to  get  up. 
One  vehemently  declared  that  Christians  hated  the  Jews  and 
had  always  persecuted  them.    I  tried  in  vain  to  show  him  that 

those  who  persecute  are  not  Christian,  but  antichristian.    B 

was  there,  having  just  returned  from  Russia.  As  a  Russian 
Jew,  he  put  in  some  heavy  shots  in  the  disputation  with  these 
objectors.  For  a  half-hour  they  contended  out  of  the  Scriptures 
whether  this  is  Christ." 

340 


FOR    THE  HEALING   OF   THE  NATIONS  341 

Again  :  "  The  Jewish  work  continues  to  be  of  great  interest 
— one  more  confessed  Christ  last  evening.  The  Hebrews  of 
the  North  End  are  greatly  excited  over  these  accessions  to 
Christ.  Last  Thursday  night  they  assaulted  Solomon  as  he 
was  coming  out  of  the  hall.  They  called  a  meeting  two  weeks 
ago  to  see  what  could  be  done  to  resist  the  aggressions.  The 
inclosed  circular  in  Hebrew  contains  the  call." 

"  I  am  just  home  from  prayer-meeting  and  am  moved  to 
write  a  word.  It  was  a  wonderful  meeting  to-night,  the  sub- 
ject being  prayer  for  Israel.  You  would  have  believed  the  set 
time  to  favor  Zion  had  come  had  you  been  there.  One  German 
Jew,  a  recent  arrival  from  Europe,  prayed  powerfully  in  German. 

S followed  in  broken  English.    Then  H S ,  who 

is  to  unite  with  us  next  church  meeting,  spoke.  He  is  a  little 
fellow,  born  in  Boston,  but  he  spoke  like  a  patriarch  for  wisdom 
and  solidity.  It  was  really  wonderful  how  he  set  forth  Christ 
and  magnified  his  grace.  Then  a  new  man,  quite  prominent 
among  the  Hebrews,  Niles  tells  me,  rose  to  avow  his  deter- 
mination to  follow  Christ.  Perhaps  the  day  of  the  Gentiles  is 
drawing  to  a  close.  It  really  came  to  me  very  powerfully  that 
it  might  be  so,  as  I  called  in  vain  for  confessors  among  our 
people,  and  then  saw  these  rise  so  readily  to  own  Jesus,  for  I 
know  all  that  this  involves.  Persecution  is  breaking  out  bit- 
terly. Several  new-comers  among  us  spoke  of  their  surprise 
and  delight  at  hearing  us  talk  about  the  conversion  of  Israel, 

Dr.  N ,  Mr.  McE ,  and  myself  having  taken  up  the 

subject.  It  is  such  a  new  and  surprising  thing  to  many.  Alas, 
what  do  they  lose  who  know  nothing  of  this  subject  and  con- 
nected truths!  Had  we  not  best  begin  to  pray  that  the  veil 
be  removed  from  the  faces  of  Gentile  Christians,  especially 
ministers  of  the  gospel  who  know  nothing  of  this  theme?  " 

A  long  list  of  uncouth,  monosyllabic  names  at  the  end  of 
the  church  directory  attests  the  patient  interest  which  the 
Clarendon  Street  Church  has  taken  in  the  Chinese  of  the  city. 


342  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

A  school  was  organized  many  years  ago  for  these  strangers. 
Its  proportions  grew  rapidly.  More  than  one  hundred  laundry- 
men  from  all  parts  of  Boston  and  from  adjacent  towns  meet 
each  Sabbath.  Of  the  twenty-five  or  more  who  were  received 
as  members,  Gordon  once  said :  "  They  have  proved  superior 
in  most  respects  to  any  class  of  foreigners  that  has  come 
among  us.  Instead  of  being  a  burden  to  the  church,  it  is  their 
disposition  to  take  their  place  as  burden-bearers  with  their 
brethren  in  Christ.  As  they  are  exceedingly  industrious  and 
thrifty  in  their  business,  so  they  are  very  hearty  and  generous 
in  their  gifts  for  the  work  of  the  Lord.  The  first  man  who 
was  converted  to  Christ  wrote  out  a  statement  of  his  conversion 
and  his  views  of  the  Christian  doctrine.  I  have  that  document 
in  my  possession.  He  wrote  it  without  the  aid  of  anybody. 
In  all  the  fifty  years  in  which  the  church  has  been  in  existence, 
we  have  never  received  an  account  of  a  conversion  or  a  state- 
ment of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  so  complete  and  explicit 
and  satisfactory  as  the  one  which  this  Chinaman  wrote  out  on 
entering  the  church." 

For  these  Asiatics  Dr.  Gordon  ever  had  a  deep  concern. 
In  his  late  years  he  frequently  remarked  that  if  he  were  to  begin 
life  anew  it  would  be  as  a  missionary  to  the  East.  It  was  with 
peculiar  delight,  therefore,  that  he  brought  these  men  into  the 
church  of  Christ.  None  will  forget  with  what  significant  so- 
lemnity he  used  to  repeat  before  his  congregation  of  Americans, 
when  baptizing  "  these  from  the  land  of  Sinim,"  the  words  of 
the  Lord,  "  And  I  say  unto  you,  that  many  shall  come  from 
the  east  and  the  west,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven :  but  the  sons  of 
the  kingdom  shall  be  cast  forth  into  the  outer  darkness." 

To  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  no  matter  how  ac- 
cidentally, he  ministered.  "  Returning  one  morning  from  an 
errand,"  writes  a  correspondent  in  Waterville,  Me.,  where 
Gordon  had  held  a  ten  days'  conference  during  the  summer 


FOR    THE  HEALING   OF   THE  NATIONS  343 

of  '94,  "  he  called  at  our  house  and  said,  '  I  think  that  the 
Chinaman  down  here  on  the  street  is  interested  in  rehgion, 
and  I  wish  you  would  speak  to  him.'  No  amount  of  care  and 
labor  for  the  conference  and  for  the  whole  world  could  drive 
from  his  mind  and  heart  a  sense  of  the  need  of  the  individual 
soul.  He  saw  in  the  Celestial  stranger  laundryman  '  my  neigh- 
bor.' " 

Many  things  have  occurred  which  illustrate  the  fruitfulness 
of  this  branch  of  church  work,  and  which  conclusively  refute 
the  common  assertion  that  these  "  stolid,  tricky  Asiatics  "  are 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  gospel.  One  circumstance  connected 
with  the  opening  of  the  school  is  of  special  interest.  Jure  Sim, 
who,  as  first  member  of  the  church,  gave  such  an  intelligent 
exposition  of  doctrine,  had  been  taught  in  the  Scriptures  by  a 
lady  before  the  Chinese  Mission  at  Clarendon  Street  had  been 
started.  Soon  after  entering  into  membership  he  became  con- 
vinced of  the  advantages  which  a  Chinese  school  in  the  church 
would  have.  Without  consulting  any  one,  he  set  apart  a  week 
in  which  to  pray  that  the  Lord  might  establish  such  a  school. 
Three  times  in  the  day  he  went  by  himself  to  press  this  request. 
Day  after  day  followed  without  answer.  On  Friday  noon, 
when  he  knelt  down— so  he  explained  afterward — something 
seemed  to  say  to  him,  "  Jure  Sim,  you  must  not  pray  for  that 
any  more.  You  have  been  answered."  In  the  evening  and  on 
the  following  morning  the  same  words  were  unaccountably  im- 
pressed upon  his  mind.  Shortly  after  he  had  begun  work  in 
his  laundry  Saturday  morning,  the  mail-carrier  stepped  in  and 
handed  him  a  letter.  On  opening  it  he  found  a  large  red  card, 
on  which  was  printed,  in  English  on  one  side  and  in  Chinese 
upon  the  other,  "  A  mission  school  for  Chinese  will  be  opened 
in  the  Clarendon  Street  Church,  Sunday,  March  4,  1887." 

That  conversion  is  much  the  same  experience  among  all 
peoples  can  be  clearly  seen  from  the  following : 

Chin  Tong  came  into  the  school  a  raw,  uncouth,  unrespon- 


344  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

sive  Chinaman.  Unlike  most  of  his  fellows,  he  was  in  his 
person  very  unclean  and  unsavory.  The  teacher  to  whom  he 
was  assigned  worked  with  him  month  after  month  without 
making  upon  him  the  least  apparent  impression.  One  Sunday 
the  text,  "  If  we  confess  our  sins,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  for- 
give us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness," 
was  marked  in  his  New  Testament  and  assigned  for  the  next 
lesson.  When  he  turned  up  the  following  Sabbath  the  verse 
was  almost  obliterated  from  the  page  by  the  incessant  movement 
of  his  finger  back  and  forth  over  the  lines.  One  word  alone 
puzzled  him,  the  word  "cleanse."  However,  this  was  easily 
explained  to  one  whose  daily  work  was  over  tubs  and  ironing- 
boards.  During  the  next  week  a  young  man  called  twice  at 
the  teacher's  home,  but  would  not  leave  his  name.  When  the 
hour  for  the  Chinese  school  came  round  again  the  teacher  took 
her  seat  in  the  accustomed  place.  Presently  a  man  in  Oc- 
cidental dress  entered  and  sat  down  beside  her.  It  was  Chin 
Tong,  but  so  changed  as  not  to  be  recognizable.  His  cue  was 
off,  his  hair  shingled,  his  long  finger-nails  pared,  his  face  clean 
as  a  new  coin,  his  clothes  new  and  well  cared  for.  The  text 
had  done  its  work.  "  Jesus  Christ  make  me  clean  inside  and 
outside,"  he  explained.  Heart,  mind,  and  person  had  been 
transformed. 

These  Chinese  Christians  have  organized  a  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
among  themselves,  hiring  a  house  near  the  church  for  its  per- 
manent quarters.  They  have,  too,  a  lot  in  Mount  Hope  Ceme- 
tery, where  Christians  can  be  buried  apart  without  the  usual  con- 
comitants of  heathen  funerals.  Some  years  ago  one  of  their 
number  died.  Through  some  misunderstanding  the  pastor  of 
the  church  was  absent,  and  the  funeral  exercises  arranged  for 
had  to  be  omitted.  When  they  had  gotten  back  to  the  Chinese 
Home  they  fell  to  talking  about  their  dead  friend.  Every  one 
regretted  that  Lue  Pen  should  have  been  laid  away  "  as  a  dog  " 
without  a  Christian  service.     They  determined,  therefore,  to 


FOR    THE  HEALING   OF   THE  NATIONS  345 

hold  a  little  meeting  by  themselves  over  the  grave.  Four  of 
them  accordingly  went  out  the  next  day  to  the  distant  cemetery 
with  an  armful  of  flowers,  and,  gathering  about  the  grave,  read 
the  account  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  and  of  the  walk  to 
Emmaus,  above  the  fresh  mound.  Then  all  knelt  down,  and 
in  turn  commended  their  friend  and  themselves  to  the  Lord  of 
the  resurrection. 

Yee  Gow  was  one  of  the  older  men  in  the  school,  a  slow, 
good,  blundering  fellow  whom  none  could  help  liking  and  half 
pitying.  One  winter  he  fell  sick  and  passed  rapidly  into  con- 
sumption. He  was  carried  to  the  hospital,  but  not  much 
could  be  done  for  him.  He  was  a  Christian,  and  was  fre- 
quently visited  by  his  Chinese  brethren.  On  the  last  day  of 
his  life  he  was  found  by  Wong  Tsin  Chong,  who  had  come  to 
pray  with  the  weak  and  disheartened  sufferer.  Wong  did  his 
best  to  cheer  him  with  hopes  of  heaven.  The  old  man  did 
not  respond  with  much  eagerness  at  first.  "  I  don't  know 
whether  I  want  to  go  there,  after  all,"  he  reiterated.  "  I  won't 
know  anybody  there ;  nobody  will  care  for  me."  "  Never 
mind,  Yee  Gow,"  was  the  reply ;  "  I  shall  be  there  before  long ; 
and  when  I  get  there  I  will  look  first  for  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
when  I  find  him  I'll  bring  him  to  you."  The  old  man  was 
comforted  and  closed  his  eyes  in  peace. 

"  Wong  Tsin  Chong,"  writes  Gordon,  "  whom  we  call  '  our 
Chinese  deacon,'  so  faithful  is  he  in  looking  after  his  '  country- 
people  '  and  fellow- Christians  in  the  church,  is  a  remarkable 
man.  No  Sunday  passes  without  finding  him  preaching  the 
gospel  to  his  countrymen  in  the  Chinese  quarter.  As  he  stands 
in  the  street  speaking  in  his  native  tongue,  crowds  of  English- 
speaking  people  will  often  gather.  Then,  changing  his  language, 
he  will  plead  with  these  to  be  reconciled  to  Christ.  '  What 
kind  of  Christian?'  do  you  ask?  Would  that  there  were 
scores  of  such!  His  sole  thought  day  and  night  is  how  to 
reach  his  '  country-people '  at  home  and  abroad.  .  .  .  For 


346  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

some  years  he  has  provided  for  the  maintenance  of  a  native 
missionary  to  preach  to  the  people  of  his  own  village  in  China. 
Association  with  Christians  is  a  delight  to  him.  When  he 
stood  up  to  receive  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  on  admission 
into  the  church,  the  pride  and  satisfaction  with  which  he  ac- 
cepted such  high  honor  were  visible  in  his  entire  bearing.  At 
the  next  communion,  when  other  members  were  to  be  received, 
Wong  innocently  took  his  place  in  the  line  again.  Though  an 
unusual  thing  to  repeat  the  ceremony,  we  did  not  pass  him  by. 
'How  I  hke  this  church!  They  shake  hands  every  month.' 
said  he.  Certainly  we  ought  to  merit  his  encomium  by  more 
hearty  and  unfailing  good  fellowship  with  those  who  come 
among  us. 

"  At  the  last  four  occasions  of  admitting  members  into  the 
church  a  Chinaman  was  among  the  number  each  time.  Notic- 
ing this  with  surprise  and  gratification,  we  said,  '  Wong,  isn't 
it  remarkable  that  we  have  had  a  Chinaman  on  each  of  the 
last  four  Sundays?'  With  the  most  radiant  look  he  replied, 
'  Not  at  all  remarkable.  I  asked  the  Lord  for  ten  this  year ; 
you  have  got  four  of  them.  Hold  fast  and  you  will  get  the 
other  six  before  the  year  is  over.'  O  Chinaman,  I  have  not 
found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  among  our  American  Christians! 

"  It  is  touching  and  cheering  to  hear  them  pray  and  sing  and 
expound  Scripture  and  exhort  one  another,  all  in  such  fervent 
and  orderly  manner,  in  their  own  weekly  prayer-meetings.  A 
few  of  these  expositions  will  illustrate  the  sincerity  and  intelli- 
gence of  their  Christianity. 

"  Yeung,  in  a  prayer-meeting  talk  on  '  The  Word  of  God  is 
not  Bound,'  said :  '  The  Word  of  God  binds ;  it  is  not  bound. 
We  were  astray,  ahenated  from  God.  It  bound  us  back  to  him. 
It  binds  our  lives  by  its  influence.  Bind  the  Word  of  God? 
The  Bible  says  it  is  a  sword.  Can  you  bind  a  sword  ?  Will  it 
not  cut  through  the  cords  you  attempt  to  bind  it  with  ?  Bind 
the  Word  of  God?     The  Bible  calls  it  light.     Can  you  bind 


FOR    THE  HEALING    OF   THE  NATIONS  347 

light?  Will  it  regard  your  cords  and  fetters?  Can  you  keep  it 
in  a  room?  Can  you  keep  it  from  shining?  It  will  penetrate 
everywhere  The  gospel  will  spread ;  man  cannot  prevent  it. 
Bind  a  sword,  bind  hght ;  then  may  you  bind  the  Word  of 
God.' 

"  Cheung  Yule  P'eng  said :  '  When  a  man  and  wife  have  been 
married  for  eight  or  ten  years  without  having  any  children,  and 
at  last  a  child  comes,  they  are  full  of  joy.  But  if,  after  a  while, 
they  find  that  the  child  is  deaf  or  lame  or  blind  or  dumb,  their 
joy  is  turned  to  sorrow.  So  when  I  hear  of  baptisms  now  and 
then — six  or  eight  joining  the  church — I  am  rejoiced.  But 
alas!  sometimes  my  joy  is  weakened  and  I  am  filled  with 
sorrow.  Why?  Some  of  these  members  are  dumb  or  blind 
or  deaf  or  lame.  How?  Why,  when  a  man  becomes  a 
Christian  and  doesn't  speak  to  others  about  Jesus  he  is  dumb ; 
when  a  Christian  doesn't  read  his  Bible  he  is  blind ;  when  he 
will  not  listen  to  advice  and  instruction,  or  when  he  sleeps  in 
church,  he  is  deaf;  when  he  neglects  the  meetings  of  the 
brethren  and  fails  to  come  to  church  on  the  Lord's  days  he  is 
lame.  I  rejoice  to  hear  of  baptisms,  but  how  often  converts 
disappoint  our  hopes  and  tiu-n  out  but  blind  or  deaf  or  dumb 
or  lame  children!' " 

The  local  missions  of  the  church  included,  in  addition  to  the 
work  among  Jews  and  Chinese,  a  mission  for  colored  people, 
which  became  in  time  self-sustaining ;  the  work  of  the  Indus- 
trial Home,  administered  largely  by  members  of  the  Clarendon 
Street  Church ;  an  important  rescue  work  for  women ;  the  vari- 
ous evangelistic  enterprises  of  the  young  people  at  the  wharves, 
car  stables,  and  hospitals ;  and  the  evangelistic  work  of  the 
deacons  in  weak  churches.  To  the  participation  in  foreign 
work  reference  has  already  been  made.  In  addition  to  the 
support  tendered  the  missions  of  the  denomination,  an  inde- 
pendent mission  in  Corea  was  organized  by  a  member  of  the 
chiurch,  with  five  workers  in  the  field.     This  number  is  to  be 


348  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

increased  shortly.  On  the  walls  of  the  vestry,  where  the 
prayer-meetings  are  held,  are  inscribed  the  names  of  mission- 
aries and  evangelists  connected  with  the  church.  The  number 
varies  from  time  to  time,  averaging  anywhere  from  ten  to 
twenty. 

Thus  was  the  church  transformed,  until  the  formal,  self- 
contained  congregation  had  become  "  a  little  kingdom  of  God 
in  itself,"  unobtrusive,  but  none  the  less  aggressive  in  its  mul- 
tifarious religious  agencies.  It  had  now  been  brought  into  a 
condition  of  spiritual  equipment  and  organization  ;  new  motives 
had  replaced  the  old.  The  saving  of  souls  had  taken  the  pre- 
eminent place.  The  birth  of  this  new  ideal  had  been  with 
much  labor  and  toil,  but  its  development  was  the  salvation 
of  the  church.  For  twenty-five  years  this  purpose  was  em- 
phasized week  after  week.  In  an  address  at  Minneapolis, 
in  1887,  Dr.  Gordon  drew  a  contrast,  which  is  strikingly  sug- 
gestive to  one  who  reads  between  the  lines,  of  the  life  of  old 
and  new  Clarendon  Street :  "  Ask  social  scientists  concerning 
the  perils  which  threaten  our  republic,  and  among  these  they 
will  mention  the  out-populating  power  of  the  foreign  races. 
They  tell  us  that  negro  and  Celt  are  multiplying  so  rapidly  that 
there  is  danger  that  our  native  stock  may  be  swallowed  up  by 
them.  And  as  the  counterpart  to  this,  they  admonish  us  that 
the  Americans,  as  they  grow  rich  and  aristocratic,  evade  the 
responsibilities  of  child-bearing,  and  so  put  the  Saxon  and 
Puritan  stock  to  a  constant  disadvantage  in  the  competition  of 
races.  I  mention  this  only  that  I  may  dwell  upon  the  analogous 
spiritual  fact.  As  soon  as  Zion  travailed  she  brought  forth 
children.  It  is  the  law  of  God  that  renewed  souls  should  come 
forth  through  the  birth-pangs  of  prayer  and  faith  in  the  church 
of  Christ.  But  the  tendency  is  for  the  church,  as  soon  as  it 
becomes  wealthy  and  aristocratic,  to  shirk  the  responsibilities 
of  child-bearing,  preferring  the  luxuries  of  worship,  the  music, 
the  oratory,  and  the  architecture  of  an  elegant  sanctuary,  to 


FOR    THE  HEALING    OF   THE  NATIONS  349 

the  bringing  forth  and  nursing  of  children.  Fashionable  religion 
frowns  on  prayer-meeting  exhortations  as  sanctified  baby  talk, 
and  on  simple  gospel  preaching  as  weak  pulpit  milk,  and  on 
lifting  the  hand  and  rising  for  prayers  as  nursery  exercises  in 
which  cultivated  Christians  do  not  care  to  engage.  But  the 
church  that  knows  its  calling  as  the  mother  and  nurse  of  souls 
will  use  all  these  things  because  God  has  enjoined  milk  for 
babes,  and  the  rudiments  of  faith  for  children.  All  honor  to 
the  church  that  accepts  the  function  of  child-bearing  and 
nursing ;  but  no  honor  to  that  church  which  prefers  barrenness 
to  maternity  in  order  that  she  may  be  at  ease  in  Zion.  May 
God  save  us  from  this  temptation,  which  culture  and  social 
position  are  constantly  forcing  upon  us.  It  is  the  certain 
precursor  of  doctrinal  unsoundness  as  well  as  of  spiritual  blight. 
I  can  look  out  upon  scores  of  churches  in  my  own  city,  planted 
in  orthodoxy  but  now  fallen  from  the  faith,  and  I  find  that 
their  history  for  the  most  part  verifies  this  maxim.  Their 
doctrinal  looseness  began  in  spiritual  laziness ;  it  was  when 
they  ceased  to  bring  forth  children  that  they  began  to  bring 
forth  heresies." 

"  Christianity  is  both  a  cement  and  a  solvent,"  says  Vinet. 
The  preaching  of  spiritual  truths  and  the  insistence  on  spiritual 
methods  had  a  sifting  effect,  the  results  of  which  were  twofold. 
The  restless,  the  worldly,  the  unfriendly,  gradually  dropped  oflf 
and  went  elsewhere.  This  was  in  some  ways  a  great  relief  to 
the  pastor.  Indeed,  during  a  period  of  friction  he  prayed 
earnestly  a  whole  summer  long  for  the  departure  of  a  leading 
member  whose  presence  he  felt  to  be  fatal  to  the  church's  best 
interests.  In  the  autumn  this  man  left  in  a  most  unexpected 
way  without  trouble  or  irritation.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
gathered  around  the  church  a  large  clientele  of  earnest,  devout 
souls,  whose  views  of  church  life  corresponded  with  those  set 
forth  from  the  pulpit.  Hundreds  were  converted,  too,  bringing 
with  them  the  vigor  which  goes  with  fresh  and  powerful  reli- 


350  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDOM 

gious  experiences.  For  this  was  no  church  built  up  by  attract- 
ing the  comfortable  and  well  dressed  from  other  churches  with 
oratory  and  subtle,  dexterous  rhetoric.  There  was  here  no 
flinching  from  the  hard  realities,  no  avoidance  of  uncomfortable 
truths  and  unpopular  causes,  no  magnanimous  (though  sophis- 
tical) tolerance  of  all  parties  and  all  beliefs  however  opposed 
they  might  be.  Into  these  walls  were  built  all  manner  of  re- 
jected material— the  drunkard,  the  outcast,  the  vagabond,  the 
opium-slave.  As  the  sun  distils  and  draws  to  itself  from  the 
vilest  tarn  the  fleeciest  clouds,  so  the  Spirit  of  God  carried  on 
his  redeeming  work  in  Clarendon  Street  Church.  The  impulses 
gained  vitalized,  too,  the  Baptist  churches  of  eastern  Massa- 
chusetts. For  years  Clarendon  Street  stood  as  a  religious 
clearing-house  between  the  city  and  surrounding  towns.  Young 
people  from  the  country  and  from  the  Provinces  would  spend 
five  or  ten  years  here,  and  then,  when  married,  go  to  establish 
homes  about  suburban  churches — stanch,  reUable  men  and 
women  with  the  stamp  of  the  city  church  upon  them. 

Let  us  go  into  the  church  of  the  nineties.  Here  is  no 
longer  a  select  congregation  of  pewholders.  No  longer  do 
the  humming-birds  of  fashion  flit  up  the  aisles.  No  longer 
does  the  usher  distribute  strangers  with  furtive  glances  at  the 
numberless  gaps  in  the  congregation.  Now  the  rich  and  the 
poor  meet  together;  the  Lord  is  the  Maker  of  them  all. 
We  are  upborn  by  the  weighty  sense  which  a  great  concourse 
of  people  gives,  especially  of  people  of  like  interests  and 
motives,  of  a  unanimity  of  life  and  spirit.  A  noble  type  of 
Christianity  is  regnant  in  these  hearts.  What  cordiality,  what 
affection,  what  mutual  forbearance  and  assistance  among  the 
members!  John  Stuart  Mill  remarked  cynically  that  it  could 
hardly  be  said  now,  as  it  was  said  by  those  of  pagan  Rome, 
"  Behold  how  these  Christians  love  one  another."  Yet  this 
could  be  claimed  without  exaggeration  of  the  people  whom 
Gordon  left  behind  him  in  the  chiu-ch  of  his  training.     For 


Clarendon  Street  Church. 


FOR    THE   HEALING    OF    THE  NATIONS  351 

had  he  not  explained  to  them  the  source  of  unity  and  love? 
"  '  If  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  as  touching  anything  that 
they  shall  ask,'  "  said  he,  quoting  our  Lord's  own  words,  "  '  it 
shall  be  done  for  them.'  That  word  'agree'  is  a  beautiful 
one  in  the  original,  meaning  to  be  in  symphony  or  musical 
accord.  But  it  is  not  possible  for  two  to  be  in  holy  agreement 
among  themselves  unless  each  is  attuned  to  a  third,  the  Holy 
Comforter.  The  harp  strings  must  be  keyed  to  a  common 
pitch  in  order  to  chord  with  each  other." 

How  were  these  deep  and  comprehensive  changes  effected? 
Not  with  strugghng,  but  in  quietness  and  peace.  Reforms 
were  waited  for  in  prayerful  patience  when  opposition  arose. 
Conferences  were  held  for  the  deepening  of  the  spiritual  life. 
Week  after  week,  year  after  year,  the  most  spiritual  truths  were 
presented  to  the  people.  The  steel  was  turned  and  wrought 
and  tempered.  Like  the  Japanese  sword-smith  who  spends 
a  lifetime  on  a  daimio's  single  blade,  Gordon  worked  at  his 
church  for  twenty-five  long  years.  No  wonder  it  became  an 
effective  instrument.  He  loved  his  people.  When  at  home 
he  bound  them  to  him  by  the  tenderest  ministries,  at  the  side 
of  the  sick,  comforting  the  bereaved,  burying  the  dead.  When 
away  he  wrote  frequently  to  them. 

"  I  am  resting  powerfully,  and  have  much  time  for  com- 
munion and  quiet  talking  with  the  Lord,"  he  writes.  "  I  feel 
that  my  busy  and  hurried  life  in  Boston  robs  me  too  much  of 
this.  How  much  we  need  the  times  of  refreshing  to  fit  us  for 
toil,  lest  we  become  mere  superficial  and  routine  servants!  .  .  . 
I  have  written  to  many  in  the  parish,  having  time  now  to  think 
of  all  their  wants  and  sorrows,  and  all  I  wish  to  say  to  them 
by  way  of  exhortation.  So  that  I  have  written  long  letters 
and  am  going  to  write  scores  more." 

And  again :  "  I  am  using  great  diligence  in  the  midst  of 
my  country  work  in  v^iting  letters  to  such  as  need  a  word  of 
comfort  or  counsel.     Yet  I  begin  to  feel  quite  anxious  to  get 


352  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  CORDON 

back  again  to  my  parish,  and  to  all  the  interests  and  labor, 
that  are  so  dear  to  me.  I  cannot  entirely  cast  off  the  burden 
of  it,  even  while  so  far  away,  but  am  constantly  sending  back 
my  desires  and  longings  toward  those  whom  God  has  given 
me  to  watch  over  and  care  for.  I  really  desire,  above  all  things, 
to  go  back  to  a  more  devoted  ministry  for  the  good  of  souls." 

In  the  fragment  of  spiritual  autobiography  published  after 
his  death  Gordon  describes  this  metamorphosis,  this  passage 
of  his  church  from  pupa  to  imago. 

"  '  Why  not  withdraw  from  the  church  which  has  become 
thus  secularized  and  desecrated  ?  '  it  is  asked.  To  which  we 
reply  emphatically, '  Until  the  Holy  Spirit  withdraws  we  are  not 
called  upon  to  do  so.'  And  he  is  infinitely  patient,  abiding 
still  in  his  house  so  long  as  there  are  two  or  three  who  gather 
in  Christ's  name  to  constitute  a  tcviplum  in  tcmplo,  a  sanctuary 
within  a  sanctuary,  where  he  may  find  a  home. 

"  What  the  lungs  are  to  the  air  the  church  is  to  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  and  each  individual  believer  is  like  a  cell  in  those  lungs. 
If  every  cell  is  open  and  unobstructed  the  whole  body  is  full 
of  light ;  but  if,  through  a  sudden  cold,  congestion  sets  in,  so 
that  the  larger  number  of  these  cells  are  closed,  then  the  entire 
burden  of  breathing  is  thrown  upon  the  few  which  remain  un- 
obstructed. With  redoubled  activity  these  now  inhale  and 
exhale  the  air  till  convalescence  shall  return.  So  we  strongly 
believe  that  a  few  Spirit-filled  disciples  are  sufficient  to  save  a 
church ;  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  acting  through  these,  can  and 
does  bring  back  recovery  and  health  to  the  entire  body. 

"  Woe  then  to  those  who  judge  before  the  time ;  who  depart 
from  their  brethren  and  slam  that  door  behind  them  before 
which  Jesus  is  gently  knocking ;  who  spue  the  church  out  of 
their  mouths  while  he,  though  rebuking  it,  still  loves  it  and 
owns  it  and  invites  it  to  sup  with  him. 

"  '  For  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made 
me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death,'  writes  the  apostle.    This 


FOR    THE   HEALING    OF   THE  NATIONS  353 

is  the  method  of  the  Lord's  present  work — death  overcome  by 
Hfe.  '  I  cannot  sweep  the  darkness  out,  but  I  can  shine  it  out,' 
said  John  Newton.  We  cannot  scourge  dead  works  out  of 
the  church,  but  we  can  hve  them  out.  If  we  accuse  the  church 
of  having  the  pneumonia,  let  us  who  are  individual  air-cells  in 
that  church  breathe  deeply  and  wait  patiently  and  pray  believ- 
ingly,  and  one  after  another  of  the  obstructed  cells  will  open 
to  the  Spirit,  till  convalescence  is  reestablished  in  every  part. 

"  With  the  deepest  humility  the  writer  here  sets  his  seal  of 
verifying  experience.  When  the  truth  of  the  inresidence  of 
the  Spirit  and  of  his  presiding  in  the  church  of  God  became  a 
living  conviction,  then  began  a  constant  magnifying  of  him  in 
his  offices.  Several  sermons  were  preached  yearly,  setting  forth 
the  privileges  and  duties  of  Christians  under  his  administration ; 
special  seasons  of  daily  prayer  were  set  apart,  extending  some- 
times over  several  weeks,  during  which  continual  intercession 
was  made  for  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  was  not  so 
much  prayer  for  particular  blessings  as  an  effort  to  get  into 
fellowship  with  the  Spirit  and  to  be  brought  into  unreserved 
surrender  to  his  hfe  and  acting.  The  circle  of  those  thus  pray- 
ing was  constantly  enlarged.  Then  gradually  the  result  ap- 
peared in  the  whole  church  ;  the  incoming  tide  began  to  fill  the 
bays  and  inlets,  and  as  it  did  so  the  driftwood  was  dislodged 
and  floated  away.  Ecclesiastical  amusements  dropped  off,  not 
so  much  by  the  denunciation  of  the  pulpit  as  by  the  displace- 
ment of  the  deepening  life.  The  service  of  song  was  quietly 
surrendered  back  to  the  congregation,  and  instead  of  the  select 
choir,  the  church,  who  constitute  the  true  Levites  as  well  as 
the  appointed  priesthood  of  the  new  dispensation,  took  up  the 
sacrifice  of  praise  anew  and  filled  the  house  with  their  song. 
Later  came  the  abolition  of  pew-rentals  and  the  disuse  of 
church  sales  for  raising  money  for  missions  and  other  charities. 
The  prayer-meeting  soon  passed  beyond  the  necessity  of  being 
'sustained,'  and  became  the  most  helpful  nourisher  and  sus- 


354  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

tainer  of  the  church.  The  pulpit,  too,  acquired  a  Hberty 
hitherto  unknown ;  the  outward  hampering  being  removed,  the 
inward  help  became  more  and  more  apparent,  and  the  preacher 
felt  himself  constantly  drawn  out  instead  of  being  perpetually 
repressed,  as  in  the  olden  time.  So  noiselessly  and  irresistibly 
as  the  ascending  sap  displaces  the  dead  leaves  which  have  clung 
all  winter  long  to  the  trees,  so  quietly  did  the  incoming  Spirit 
seem  to  crowd  off  the  traditional  usages  which  had  hindered 
our  liberty." 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

A    SOWER    WENT    FORTH    TO    SOW 

Convention  work  in  American  cities— The  convention  of  premillennial 
Baptists  in  Brooklyn  — Dr.  Gordon's  address— Teaching  on  the  Holy- 
Spirit 

THE  convention  work  which  Gordon  undertook  increased 
yearly  during  the  last  half-decade  of  his  life.  We  find 
notices  of  conferences  in  which  he  participated  in  Buffalo, 
Cincinnati,  Brooklyn,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  New  York, 
Springfield,  Providence,  Boston,  Lawrence,  Rochester,  Detroit, 
the  Canadian  cities,  and  scores  of  minor  points. 

"  '  I  laid  me  down  and  slept ;  I  awaked ;  for  the  Lord  sus- 
tained me,'  "  he  writes  on  a  postal  from  a  "sleeper."  "Am 
I  not  getting  to  be  a  travehng  evangelist,  an  itinerant  preacher, 
a  peripatetic  lecturer?  It  is  all  so  contrary  to  my  inclination, 
who  would  like  so  much  better  to  settle  down  and  to  keep  so. 
Well,  the  Lord  would  stir  up  my  home-fixedness  and  beget  in 
me  the  spirit  of  go-ye-forthedness.  I  trust  I  may  do  good  to 
souls." 

Most  of  these  conferences  were  organized  in  behalf  of  foreign 
missions.  One  of  the  more  unique  was  the  one  called  in 
Brooklyn  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  Baptist  pastors,  together 
with  many  more  laymen,  as  a  demonstration  in  behalf  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Lord's  reappearing.  Many  of  the  leading  men 
in  the  denomination  took  part,  among  others  Professors  Stifier 

355 


356  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

and  Gilmore  and  Messrs.  Haldeman,  Needham,  and  A.  C, 
Dixon.  This  important  meeting  was  hardly  noticed  by  the 
denominational  press.  Of  Gordon's  address  at  the  conference 
the  New  York  "  Independent  "  said  : 

"  The  church  could  hardly  contain  the  crowds  when  Dr. 
Gordon  spoke  on  the  last  night  on  the  relation  of  Baptists  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  second  coming.  He  aimed  to  show 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  premillennial  advent  has  been  the  faith 
of  the  Baptists  from  the  beginning,  the  cogent  testimony  of 
Professor  Harnack  and  of  Professor  Briggs  being  cited  as  to 
the  views  of  the  Anabaptists  and  of  the  later  English  Baptists, 
further  proof  being  adduced  from  the  declarations  of  the 
Baptist  confessions  and  Baptist  confessors  of  several  genera- 
tions. That  it  was  a  convention  of  remarkable  power  is  con- 
ceded by  all  in  attendance.  Are  the  large  Baptist  company 
who  originated  and  conducted  it  innovators  or  renovators?  is 
a  question  for  our  Baptist  brethren  to  settle." 

The  question  was  settled  once  for  all  and  in  classical  form 
by  this  address.  The  unbroken  chain  of  traditional  Baptist 
interpretation  was  traced  from  the  records  of  the  nameless, 
faithful  Anabaptists  of  the  Reformation  to  its  representatives 
to-day.  The  three  propositions  which  follow  were  defended 
with  copious  and  convincing  references  to  the  history  of  the 
church. 

"i.  That  premillenniahsm  was  the  orthodox  faith  of  the 
church  in  the  primitive  and  purest  ages ;  that  it  only  began  to 
be  seriously  discredited  when  the  church  passed  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Roman  apostasy,  which  threw  all  of  the  most 
vital  truths  of  the  gospel  into  eclipse  ;  that  it  was  only  partially 
revived  at  the  Reformation,  but  for  the  last  half-century  has 
been  reasserting  itself  with  such  power  that  it  may  be  safely 
affirmed  that  nine  tenths  of  the  best  European  bibhcal  scholar- 
ship now  stands  solidly  for  its  defense. 

"  2.  That  the  Baptists,  because  devoted  to  primitive  Chris- 


A    SOWER    WEXT  I- OK  Til    TO   SOW  357 

tianity,  and  holding  to  the  hteral  interpretation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, have  been  from  the  beginning  more  constantly  and  pro- 
nouncedly identified  with  this  doctrine  than  any  of  the  re- 
formed sects ;  embodying  it  more  or  less  distinctly  in  several 
of  their  historical  confessions,  and  proclaiming  it  by  the  mouth 
of  many  of  their  most  eminent  preachers  and  theologians. 

"  3.  These  propositions  being  true,  the  Baptists  would  seem 
to  be  committed  to  the  acceptance  of  the  premillennial  inter- 
pretation by  precisely  the  same  threefold  consideration  on 
which  they  defend  their  faith  and  practice  as  to  the  mode 
and  subjects  of  baptism,  viz.,  the  voice  of  primitive  Christianity, 
the  principle  of  literal  interpretation  of  Scripture,  and  the  well- 
fiigh  unanivious  consensus  of  critical  scholarship. 

"  After  noting  the  gradual  disappearance  of  chiliasm  before 
the  advancing  corruptions  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and 
after  referring  to  the  hidden  stream  of  doctrine  in  which  this 
primitive  faith  still  flowed  on.  Professor  Harnack  explores  this 
stream,  and  in  doing  so  strikes  at  once  'the  pure  evangelical 
forces  of  the  Anabaptists,'  many  of  whom,  he  declares,  '  need 
not  shun  comparison  with  the  Christians  of  the  apostolic  and 
post-apostoHc  ages.'  At  the  Reformation  I.uther  and  his 
coadjutors  failed  fully  to  revive  this  doctrine,  for  which  the 
theologian  Martensen  expresses  regret.  But  Harnack,  refer- 
ring to  this  fact,  adds  :  '  Millenarianism,  nevertheless,  found  its 
way  with  the  help  of  the  apocalyptic  mysticism  and  Anabaptist 
influences  into  the  churches  of  the  Reformation.'  '  Anabaptist 
influences ' — let  the  candid  reader  trace  these  and  see  how  our 
ecclesiastical  ancestors  are  haunted  by  the  shadow  of  this  pre- 
millennial faith,  so  odious  to  many  of  their  sons.  We  have 
not  room  for  detailed  histor}^  but  we  follow  this  shadow  for  a 
little. 

"  Professor  Briggs,  of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  with 
no  evident  liking  for  this  doctrine,  but  with  evident  desire  to 
rule  it  out  of  the  Presbyterian  camp,  says :  '  The  confession  of 


358  A  DO  XI RAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

faith  of  the  seven  Baptist  churches  issued  in  1645-46  gave  ex- 
pression to  premillenarianism,  and  it  becatne  the  especial  doctrine 
of  the  English  Baptists  and  Fifth  Monarchy  Men'  (*  Whither?  ' 
p.  214.)  One  of  our  editors  vehemently  denies  the  exasperat- 
ing imputation,  as  though  it  were  a  slander  upon  our  ecclesias- 
tical forefathers  to  connect  them  with  this  doctrine.  But  if  the 
allegation  is  false,  why  has  so  competent  an  historian  as  Dr. 
William  R.  WiUiams  made  such  an  eloquent  defense  of  the 
early  Baptists  on  this  point,  not  denying  the  charge,  but  justi- 
fying them  under  it?  ('  Lectures  on  Baptist  History,'  pp. 
157-159.)  Then  let  us  turn  to  the  famous  Confession  of  1660, 
to  which  more  than  twenty  thousand  English  Baptists  gave 
their  assent.  By  writers  of  the  highest  authority  on  the  ques- 
tion we  find  this  document  constantly  quoted  as  chiliastic,  one 
eminent  author  speaking  of  it  as  embodying  '  the  purest  early 
patristic  7nillenarian  doctrine.'  A  single  sentence  from  the 
confession  will  show  how  little  its  framers  anticipated  the  tri- 
umph of  the  church  before  Christ's  return  in  glory,  and  how 
steadfastly  they  looked  for  his  coming  to  usher  in  that  triumph. 
In  Article  XXII.  we  read: 

"  '  That  the  same  Lord  Jesus  who  showed  himself  alive  after 
his  passion  by  many  infallible  proofs,  and  who  was  carried  up 
into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  hke  manner  as  he  was  seen  to 
go  into  heaven.  And  when  Christ,  who  is  oiu  hfe,  shall  appear, 
we  shall  appear  with  him  in  glory.  .  .  .  Though  now,  alas! 
many  men  be  scarce  content  that  the  saints  should  have  so 
much  as  a  being  among  them,  but  when  Christ  shall  appear  then 
shall  be  their  day,  then  shall  be  given  unto  them  potuer  over  the 
nations  to  rule  thon  with  a  rod  of  iron.  Then  shall  they  receive  a 
crown  of  life  which  no  man  shall  take  fro  tn  them,  nor  shall  they 
by  any  means  be  turned  or  overturned  from  it,  for  the  oppressor 
shall  be  broken  to  pieces' 

"  If  we  turn  from  the  confession  to  the  confessors,  the  early 
faith  of  our  co-religionists  comes  out  even  more  strongly.   John 


A    SOWER    WENT  FOR  Til    TO   SOW  359 

Bunyan's  millenarianism  is  well  known  and  generally  conceded. 
He  maintained  the  early  patristic  view  that  the  seventh  millen- 
niad  will  be  the  Sabbath  of  the  world,  to  be  ushered  in  by  the 
advent  of  Christ.  (Works,  vol.  v.,  p.  286  ;  vol.  vi.,  p.  301.)  One 
of  Bunyan's  contemporaries  — Benjamin  Keach,  an  illustrious 
predecessor  of  Spurgeon  in  the  pastorate— has  left  a  very  full 
confession  of  his  views  on  this  point.  He  was  brought  to  trial 
October  8,  1664,  on  the  two  charges  of  Anabaptism  and  mil- 
lenarianism. As  he  stood  before  Lord  Chief  Justice  Hyde,  the 
representative  of  the  state  church,  he  was  summoned  first  to  an- 
swer for  his  '  damnable  doctrine  '  concerning  baptism ;  which 
being  disposed  of,  the  second  article  of  indictment  was  taken 
up,  viz.,  that  he  held  that  '  t/ie  saints  shall  7'eign  with  Christ  a 
thousand  years.'  The  judge  pronounced  this  'an  old  heresy 
which  was  cast  out  of  the  church  a  thousand  years  ago,  and 
was  likewise  condemned  by  the  Council  of  Constance  five 
hundred  years  after,  and  hath  lain  dead  ever  since,  till  now 
this  rascal  hath  revived  it.'  Nevertheless  the  stalwart  Baptist 
preacher  firmly  defended  his  view,  bringing  out  clearly  the 
doctrine  of  the  first  resurrection,  followed  by  the  millennium 
and  the  reign  of  the  saints  with  Christ,  and  as  the  result  he 
was  condemned  and  sent  to  the  pillory,  where,  standing  all  day 
with  his  accusation  written  over  his  head,  he  bade  the  specta- 
tors *  take  notice  that  it  is  not  for  any  wickedness  I  stand  here, 
but  for  writing  and  publishing  the  truths  which  the  Spirit  of 
God  hath  revealed  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.' 

"  Dr.  John  Gill,  the  commentator  and  theologian,  has  drawn 
out  the  premillennial  scheme  more  fully  and  set  forth  the  scrip- 
tural arguments  for  it  more  cogently,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
Baptist  writer  who  has  treated  the  subject.  For  a  full  state- 
ment of  his  views  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  his  '  Body  of 
Divinity '  and  his  '  Commentary  on  Revelation.'  Couple  his 
testimony  with  that  of  Charles  H.  Spurgeon,  who  said,  in  a 
recent  sermon,  that  there  can  be  no  millennium  without  the 


36o  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

presence  of  the  visible  Christ,  'any  more  than  there  can  be 
summer  without  the  sun.  He  7nust  come  first,  a?id  then  will 
the  golden  age  begin.''  Thus  we  have  an  illustrious  trio  of 
Baptist  witnesses  in  a  single  pastoral  succession— Keach,  Gill, 
and  Spurgeon.  The  teachings  of  these  three  great  confessors 
would  seem  to  shake  the  integrity  of  the  assertion  above 
quoted,  that  '  premillenarianism  is  no  more  an  article  of  Baptist 
faith  than  is  second  probation.' 

"  Perhaps  this  statement  was  intended  to  apply  to  American 
Baptists;  well,  we  have  to  say  that  just  as  clearly  as  those 
founders  of  New  England,  the  Mathers  and  the  Davenports 
and  the  Walleys,  were  millenarians,  so  clearly  were  our  Baptist 
fathers  who  were  contemporary  with  them. 

"  Hear  Roger  Williams's  unequivocal  utterance  on  the  per- 
sonal and  imminent  advent  of  our  Lord.  '  It  is  the  counsel 
of  God,'  he  says,  '  that  Jesus  Christ  shall  shortly  appear,  a 
most  glorious  Judge  and  Revenger  against  all  his  enemies, 
while  the  heavens  and  the  earth  shall  flee  before  his  most 
glorious  presence.'  But  what  did  Roger  Williams  believe  as 
to  the  condition  of  things  on  earth  at  Christ's  appearing?  Did 
he  hold  to  that  '  from  time  immemorial '  Baptist  doctrine,  the 
conversion  of  the  world  previous  to  the  second  advent?  Lis- 
ten to  him  again.  'The  Lord  will  come  when  an  evil  world 
is  ripe  in  sin  and  antichristianism  ;  will  come  suddenly,  and 
then  will  he  melt  the  earth  with  fire  and  make  it  new.  Till 
then  I  wait  and  hope,  and  bear  the  dragon's  wrath.'  ('  Bloudy 
Tenet,'  1644,  pp.  32,  72,  73,  361.)  Roger  Williams,  we  need 
not  remind  our  hearers,  was  driven  into  the  wilderness  before 
the  face  of  the  state  church  dragon, 

"  His  co-religionist,  John  Clarke  of  Newport,  was  con- 
demned to  pay  twenty-five  pounds  or  be  well  whipped  for 
his  Baptist  faith  and  practice,  but  escaped  the  penalty  through 
the  intervention  of  his  friends.  That  Clarke  was  of  those  who 
'  come  behind  in  no  gift,  waiting  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord,' 


A    SOWER    WENT  FOKril   TO   SOW  361 

is  evident  from  his  testimony,  recorded  in  his  confession  of 
faith  and  deh'vered  to  the  magistrates  of  Boston,  165 1.  In 
this  confession  he  speaks  of  '  the  anointed  King  who  is  gone 
unto  his  Father  for  his  glorious  kingdom,  and  shall  ere  long 
return  again ' ;  and  identifies  himself  with  those  who  '  wait  for 
his  coming  the  second  time  in  the  form  of  a  Lord  and  King, 
with  his  glorious  kingdom,  according  to  promise.'  (Backus, 
'History  of  New  England,'  187 1,  vol.  i.,  pp.  182,  183.) 

"  Obadiah  Holmes,  who  was  scourged  in  Boston  for  his 
Baptist  teaching  and  practice,  receiving  thirty  lashes  with  a 
three-corded  whip,  drew  up  a  confession  of  his  faith  in  1675 
for  the  information  of  friends  in  England  who  had  misjudged 
him.  The  doctrines  of  the  coming  of  Christ,  the  conversion 
of  Israel,  and  the  millennial  reign  are  stated  as  clearly  by 
Holmes  Martyr  in  the  seventeenth  century  as  by  Justin 
Martyr  in  the  second.     I  quote  from  his  confession : 

"  '  2t2f  I  believe  the  promise  of  the  Father  concerning  the 
return  of  Israel  and  Judah,  and  the  coming  of  the  Lord  to 
raise  up  the  dead  in  Christ,  and  to  change  them  that  are  alive, 
that  they  may  reign  with  him  a  thousand  years. 

"  '  34.  I  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  wicked  to  receive 
their  just  judgment. 

"'35.  As  I  believe  in  eternal  judgment  to  the  wicked,  so 
I  believe  the  glorious  declaration  of  the  Lord,  "  Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father,  enter  into  the  joy  of  your  Lord  ;"  which 
joy  eye  hath  not  seen,  ear  hath  not  heard,  neither  can  it  enter 
into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive  the  glory  that  God  hath 
prepared  for  them  that  do  love  him  and  wait  for  his  appear- 
ance ;  wherefore  come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.  In  this  faith 
and  profession  I  stand,  and  have  sealed  the  same  with  my 
blood,  in  Boston,  in  New  England.' 

"  I  think  we  must  conclude  from  these  quotations  that 
millenarianism  was  the  martyr  faith  of  our  denomination, 
even  though  it  may  not  be  the  modern  faith.     The  fact  is 


362  ADOXIRAM  JUDSOX  GORDOX 

that  this  primitive  doctrine  of  the  church  has  always  tended 
to  reappear  with  a  fresh  planting  of  the  gospel  and  in  a  revival 
of  spiritual  religion.  It  is  just  as  true  that  when  the  church  has 
entered  upon  a  career  of  worldly  prosperity  the  tendency  has 
been  to  repudiate  this  apostolic  faith  as  antiquated,  pessimis- 
tic, and  out  of  joint  with  the  times.  This  sentence,  in  which 
the  church  historian,  Kurtz,  accounts  for  the  decline  of  the 
early  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  coming  and  his  reign,  is  very  sig- 
nificant. He  says :  '  As  the  church  saw  herself  now  entering 
upon  an  extended  career  of  worldly  prosperity,  her  early  mil- 
lennial hopes  passed  into  oblivion.'  Possibly  we  to-day  may 
be  unconsciously  repeating  that  early  experience.  Think  of 
Holmes  whipped  in  Boston  and  Williams  banished  into  the 
wilderness  for  avowing  the  Baptist  faith  ;  and  then  come  dovNTi 
two  centuries  to  find  the  once  despised  Baptist  sect  grown  to 
be  the  largest  Protestant  body  in  Boston,  and  the  second  larg- 
est in  the  Union,  with  its  three  million  communicants,  its  great 
universities,  its  large  endowments,  and  its  miUionaire  mer- 
chant^, some  of  whom  stand  ready  to  be  as  munificent  patrons 
to  it  as  Constantine  was  to  the  church  of  his  age!  What 
wonder  that  he  seems  to  strike  a  discordant  note  in  the  Te 
Deum  of  our  prosperity  who  intrusively  takes  up  the  words  of 
the  apostle,  '  Here  we  have  no  continuing  city.'  *  For  our 
citizenship  is  in  heaven ;  from  whence  we  also  look  for  the  Sav- 
ioiu-,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  " 

In  his  advocacy  of  Jesus'  teaching  on  this  point,  Dr.  Gor- 
don was  much  opposed,  especially  by  the  ministr}-.  In  the 
memorable  Canadian  missionary  tour  many  came  to  him  and 
urged  him  to  refrain  from  references  to  the  second  coming  of 
Christ,  that  offense  might  not  be  given.  Upon  this  fact  he 
adverts  in  a  letter  from  one  of  the  Canadian  cities  in  which 
he  was  speaking : 

"  While  standing  at  a  street  corner  last  evening,"  he  says, 
"  waiting  for  a  car,  a  Salvation  Army  band  came  along,  and 


A   SOWER    WENT  FORTH   TO  SOW  363 

then  a  poor  redeemed  man  took  off  his  hat  and  spoke  to  the 
crowd.  It  was  so  pathetic,  so  true,  so  correct  in  its  gospel 
preaching,  that  it  won  all  our  hearts.  I  think  I  could  not  have 
resisted  it  had  I  been  unconverted.  Thank  God  for  the  Sal- 
vation Army.  ...  I  am  stopping  with  a  lovely  family  of 
Scotch  people,  full  of  interest  in  missions  and  clear  in  the 
truth,  wanting  me  so  much  to  go  and  give  a  message  on  the 
Lord's  coming ;  and  yet  the  ministers  are  opposed  to  it.  Is 
it  not  humiliating  that  in  so  many  cases  the  flock  has  to  lead 
the  shepherds?  " 

While  emphasizing  powerfully  these  much-neglected  doc- 
trines, he  dwelt  equally  upon  the  fact  that  the  Spirit  abides 
here  in  this  dispensation,  the  source  of  energy  for  all  Christian 
ministrations. 

His  interest  in  this  theme  was  not  altogether  new.  There 
is  much  about  it  in  "  The  Twofold  Life,"  a  book  to  which  the 
president  of  a  leading  New  England  college  has  expressed  his 
profound  indebtedness,  and  which,  on  the  other  hand,  of  all 
the  volumes  in  the  library  of  the  Vermont  State  Prison,  was, 
some  years  ago,  the  favorite  among  the  convicts,  being  read 
and  re-read  until  it  fell  apart  and  disappeared.  It  was  in  Dr. 
Gordon's  last  years,  however,  that  he  dwelt  upon  the  doctrine 
with  especial  stress.  He  realized  how  slightly  informed  Chris- 
tians were  on  the  subject.  His  own  views  were  maturing  and 
deepening.  He  was,  too,  experiencing  personally  the  presence 
of  the  Spirit  as  he  climbed  steadily  to  the  table-lands  of  the 
higher  life.  From  the  nebula  of  convention  addresses,  ser- 
mons and  articles  was  developed  gradually  a  system  in  which 
"  The  Ministry  of  the  Spirit "  holds  a  central  place,  "  The  Holy 
Spirit  in  Missions  "  and  "  How  Christ  Came  to  Church  "  being 
dependent  and  tributary  to  it.  The  first  and  last  of  these 
books  were  published  posthumously.  Many  think  that  in 
them  Gordon  did  for  his  day  what  John  Owen,  the  Puritan, 
in  the  "  Discourse  Concerning  the  Spirit,"  did  for  his.     "  He 


364  ADONIRAM  JUDSOX  GORDON 

brought  up,"  says  a  competent  authority,*  "  from  the  debris  of 
the  past  the  apostohc  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  personaHty, 
deity,  and  actual  presidency  in  the  assembly  of  the  saints,  and 
gave  it  increased  emphasis  for  a  decade  of  years." 

Insistence  on  the  importance  of  the  Spirit's  ministry  has 
been  the  glory  of  Quakerism  and  the  unquestionable  reason 
for  its  preeminence  in  every  form  of  good  works.  The  dis- 
tortion of  the  doctrine,  in  the  contention  that  "  the  Spirit  which 
bloweth  where  it  listeth  "  is  confined  to  certain  ecclesiastical 
channels,  has  proved  the  vigorous  tap-root  of  an  immoral 
clericalism. t  The  neglect  into  which  the  teaching  has  fallen 
explains  the  languor  and  debility  so  common  in  Protestant 
churches.  "  Of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  divine  person,  resident 
in  the  church,  to  be  honored  and  invoked  and  obeyed  and 
imphcitly  trusted,  many  Christians  know  nothing.  Is  it  con- 
ceivable that  there  could  be  any  deep  spiritual  life  or  any  real 
sanctified  energy  for  service  in  a  community  of  such?  "  \ 

The  Spirit  he  believed  to  be  a  delinite  personality,  whose 
coming  was  announced  by  Jesus  as  distinctly  as  the  latter's 
advent  was  foretold  by  prophets  and  angels.  The  upper  room 
was  his  cradle,  as  the  manger  at  Bethlehem  was  the  cradle  of 
the  Son  of  God.  His  time  ministry,  "  distinct  from  all  that 
went  before,  and  introductory  to  all  that  is  to  come  after,  a 
ministry  with  a  definite  beginning  and  a  definite  termination,"  § 

*  Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 

t  "  In  the  doctrine  of  tactual  succession  there  is  not  only  a  kind  of  cheap- 
ness and  pettiness,  but  especially  a  foreshortening  of  the  Spirit's  arm  as 
though  the  consecrating  touch  depended  on  the  intervention  of  some  visi- 
ble ecclesiastic.  On  the  contrary,  the  hands  of  the  Paraclete  have  often 
stretched  across  a  century  or  generation  and  set  apart  an  apostle  by  <'ore- 
ordination  long  before  any  bishop  or  presbyter  has  moved  to  set  him  apart 
by  ordination." 

\  "  The  Ministry  of  the  Spirit,"  p.  73. 

$  /did.,  p.  15. 


A    SOWER    WENT  FORTH   TO   SOW  365 

he  thought  as  susceptible  of  biographic  treatment  as  the  earthly 
life  of  Jesus. 

'  The  work  of  the  Spirit  is  preeminently  to  communicate 
and  apply  the  work  of  Christ  to  human  hearts.  .  .  .  The  Son 
glorifies  the  Father ;  the  Spirit  glorifies  the  Son.  ...  In  the 
church  two  processes  are  in  operation,  one  of  life,  the  other  of 
death.  If  either  is  interrupted  disorder  results.  To  effect  this 
twofold  operation,  the  daily  death  of  the  church  in  fulfilment 
of  the  crucified  life  of  her  Head,  and  her  daily  living  in  mani- 
festation of  his  glorified  life,  the  Spirit  dwells  evermore  with 
us."  *     His  is  the  Real  Presence. 

The  specific  method  of  the  Spirit's  work  of  vivification  is 
indicated  by  three  terms  used  in  Scripture — sealing,  filling, 
anointing.  Each  of  these  is  connected  with  some  special  di- 
vine endowment;  the  seal  with  assurance,  the  filling  with 
power,  and  the  anointing  with  knowledge.  "The  contrast 
between  working  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  and  in  the  energy 
of  the  flesh  is  easily  discernible.  Even  more  so  is  the  contrast 
between  the  tuition  of  learning  and  the  intuition  of  the  Spirit 
in  knowledge  and  teaching."  t 

"  It  costs  much,"  said  Dr.  Gordon  in  one  of  these  conven- 
tion addresses,  "  to  obtain  this  power.  It  costs  self-surrender 
and  humiliation  and  the  yielding  up  of  our  most  precious 
things  to  God.  It  costs  the  perseverance  of  long  waiting  and 
the  faith  of  strong  trust.  But  when  we  are  really  in  that 
power,  we  shall  find  this  difference  :  that,  whereas  before  it  was 
hard  for  us  to  do  the  easiest  things,  now  it  is  easy  for  us  to  do 
the  hardest." 

And  again :  ''  As  we  become  deeply  instructed  in  this  mat- 
ter, we  shall  learn  to  pray  less  about  the  details  of  duty  and 
more  about  the  fullness  of  power.    The  manufacturer  is  chiefly 

*  "  The  Ministry  of  the  Spirit,"  pp.  63,  64. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  90. 


366  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

anxious  to  secure  an  ample  head  of  water  for  his  mills ;  and, 
this  being  found,  he  knows  that  his  ten  thousand  spindles  will 
keep  in  motion  without  particular  attention  to  each  one.  It 
is,  in  hke  manner,  the  sources  of  our  power  for  which  we  should 
be  most  solicitous,  and  not  the  results." 

This  doctrine  of  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit,  it  will  be  readily 
seen,  articulates  itself  to  his  whole  theory  of  man's  status  be- 
fore God.  The  implanted  life  of  God  alone  can  save  man 
from  moral  decomposition.  The  expected  return  of  Christ  to 
earth  is  the  one  hope  in  the  struggle  for  social  redemption. 
The  presence  of  the  Spirit  in  the  heart  is  the  condition  prece- 
dent to  an  acceptable  witness  for  Christ  by  the  regenerate 
until  the  day  of  that  appearing.  Everywhere  does  the  New 
Testament  declare  the  impotence  of  man  and  the  sovereign 
sufficiency  of  God. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 


TILL   THE    DAY    DAWN 


Twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  pastorate — Closing  days — Sickness  and  death 
— The  cries  of  bereavement — Funeral  addresses 

ON  the  27th  of  December,  1894,  Gordon  completed  the 
twenty-fifth  year  of  his  pastorate  in  the  Clarendon 
Street  Church.  The  anniversary  was  observed  by  his  people 
with  appropriate  exercises,  a  reception,  and  a  tea,  followed  by 
addresses  from  his  colleagues  in  the  ministry  of  the  city.  The 
eulogy  which  ordinarily  characterizes  such  occasions  was  re- 
butted by  him  in  a  brief  speech,  half  humorous,  half  serious. 
He  distributed  the  praise  heaped  on  himself  to  his  people  and 
to  his  "  splendid  cabinet  of  deacons,"  contending  that  the 
growth  of  a  tree  is  due,  not  to  its  own  excellences,  but  to  the 
excellence  of  the  soil  at  its  roots,  and  that  his  only  merit  con- 
sisted in  his  staying  so  long  where  God  had  placed  him  and 
where  conditions  were  so  favorable.  He  reminded  his  hearers, 
on  the  other  hand,  of  the  danger  which  lay  hid  in  all  eulogy  of 
one  whose  record  was  not  closed,  and  of  the  possibility  which 
shadowed  himself  as  well  as  the  great  apostle  of  becoming  a 
castaway  on  the  dark  seas  of  unfaithfulness. 

In  the  evening,  while  sitting  with  his  wife  at  home,  he  took 
down  the  "  Life  of  Andrew  Bonar,"  which  he  had  been  read- 
ing, and,  after  commenting  on  the  events  of  the  day,  opened  to 
these  words,  saying,  "  Here  is  something  which  just  expresses 
my  feelings  " : 

367 


368  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

" '  Last  night's  jubilee  passed  over  very  pleasantly  in  one 
way,  but  was  to  me  at  the  same  time  very  solemn  and  hum- 
bling. I  see  in  the  retrospect  so  much  that  was  altogether 
imperfect  and  so  much  that  was  left  undone.  But  it  was  a 
great  gathering  and  most  hearty  on  the  part  of  all  the  friends 
who  came.  May  the  Lord  save  me  from  the  danger  that  lurks 
under  praise  and  laudation  of  friends.  I  had  no  idea  that  I 
had  so  many  friends  in  so  many  parts,  and  that  the  Lord  had 
been  pleased  to  use  me  in  so  many  ways.  ,  .  .  The  anniver- 
sary was  carried  through  in  a  way  that  interested  the  people, 
but  as  for  myself,  when  I  returned  home  and  sat  in  the  even- 
ing alone  I  felt  deep  and  bitter  regret  at  the  thought  of  my 
past.  I  think  I  felt  what  is  meant  by  being  ashamed  before 
God,  as  Ezra  expresses  it.  And  all  this  was  aggravated  by 
the  thought  of  all  the  immense  kindness  of  the  Lord  to  me 
and  to  mine.  I  have  been  thinking  to-night  that  perhaps  my 
next  undertaking  may  be  this,  appearing  at  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ  when  I  give  an  account  of  my  trading  with  my  tal- 
ents. I  wish  to  hide  in  the  shadow  of  the  Plant  of  Renown, 
and  be  found  there  when  the  Voice  says,  "  Where  art  thou  ?  "  '" 

It  was  a  singular  suggestion,  a  strange  premonition,  as  if  he 
had  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  dark  cloud  on  the  distant  horizon. 
Yet  all  the  world  was  bathed  in  sunshine  still.  Children  and 
grandchildren  were  gathered  about  his  breakfast-table  the  next 
morning.  With  him,  too,  was  his  close  friend,  Dr.  A.  T.  Pier- 
son,  whose  presence  ever  was  as  flint  to  steel.  What  raillery, 
what  wit,  what  flow  of  anecdote  that  morning!  Retort  and 
repartee  coruscated  and  sparkled.  Twenty-seven  admirable 
stories  were  jotted  down  afterward  by  an  interested  listener, 
just  as  birds  are  picked  up  by  the  game-dogs  after  an  unusual 
shot.  The  following  Sunday  he  preached  as  usual.  The 
new  year  opened,  with  its  round  of  engagements.  Everything 
looked  as  if  he  were  entering  upon  another  cycle  of  usefulness, 
even  larger  and  more  fruitful  than  the  one  just  closed. 


TILL    THE  DAY  DAWN  369 

There  were,  however,  indications  of  a  coming  break,  as  of 
a  straining  beam  upon  which  additional  pressure  is  being  con- 
stantly placed.  His  work  during  the  month  of  January  was 
continuous  and  intense.  One  might  almost  have  believed  that 
he  was  trying  to  illustrate  the  proverb,  "  The  more  light  a  torch 
gives,  the  less  time  it  burns."  An  idea  of  his  ceaseless  activity 
can  be  obtained  from  a  mere  catalogue  of  his  engagements 
for  the  brief  two  weeks  of  the  sickness  which  followed.  He 
was  to  give  addresses  at  Philadelphia,  at  Newark,  at  the  mid- 
winter convention  of  Dr.  Cullis's  church,  at  the  conference  of 
the  Christian  Alliance,  Boston,  at  Mount  Holyoke  College, 
and  two  addresses  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.  This  in  addition  to 
his  church  cares  at  home.  "  I  must  get  out  from  under  these, 
burdens  for  a  little,"  he  would  say.  Yet  when  suggestions 
were  offered  and  plans  perfected  for  rest  he  could  never  be 
induced  to  stop.  His  system  was  thus  depleted  and  prepared 
for  the  entrance  of  the  disease  which  was  to  prove  fatal. 

Monday,  January  21st,  was  his  last  day  of  service.  In  the 
evening  he  attended  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Industrial 
Home,  and  went  thence  to  address  the  Young  Men's  Baptist 
Union  on  the  subject  of  missions.  Never  did  he  speak  with 
more  delicate  humor,  with  more  captivating  grace,  with  greater 
earnestness  ;  but  the  lines  were  deep  on  his  face,  as  if  the  graver 
overwork  had  been  more  active  than  ever,  and  those  who  sat 
near  could  clearly  see  that  he  was  far  from  well.  The  next 
day  he  was  unable  to  leave  his  bed.  The  physician  was  called 
and  the  disease  pronounced  to  be  grippe,  with  tendencies  to 
bronchitis.  Then  for  days  did  he  struggle  on  as  in  a  Winding 
storm.  The  fever  became  violent  and  was  accompanied  with 
intermittent  delirium.  Night  after  night  he  lay  in  the  agonies 
of  a  prolonged  insomnia.  He  complained  of  "  the  ceaseless 
storm,  the  incessant  noise  as  of  great  raindrops  on  a  window- 
pane,"  though  all  the  while  the  air  outside  was  as  still  as  an 
Indian  summer.     He  would  groan  at  "  the  sudden,  bursts  of 


370  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

blackness  "  which  overwhelmed  him  "  as  if  he  were  felled  with 
a  club  to  the  ground."  Often  in  those  night  hours  could  we 
hear  him  whispering  John  Angelus'  hymn : 

"Jesus,  Jesus,  visit  me; 

How  my  soul  longs  after  thee! 
When,  my  best,  my  dearest  friend. 
Shall  our  separation  end?  " 

For  with  all  the  intense  physical  suffering  there  went  along 
a  sense  of  isolation  and  of  desertion.  On  the  Wednesday  night 
before  his  death  this  feeling  seemed  to  be  overpowering.  He 
asked  that  every  one  might  leave  the  room  that  he  might  be 
alone  and  face  to  face  with  Jesus.  Then  followed  such  a 
heartrending  confession  of  unworthiness,  such  an  appeal  for 
the  presence  and  companionship  of  the  Saviour,  such  promises, 
with  strong  crying  and  tears,  of  renewed  consecration,  of 
greater  diligence  and  devotion  in  God's  service,  as  are  rarely 
heard.  It  was  as  if  the  Gethsemane  prayer  were  again 
ascending. 

Conscious  of  his  condition  and  with  a  presentiment  of  the 
approaching  end  he  called  his  wife  to  his  side  and  said,  "  If 
anything  should  happen,  do  not  have  a  quartet  choir ;  I  have 
selected  four  hymns  I  want  sung  by  the  people.  Write  them 
down :  '  Abide  with  me,'  '  The  sands  of  time  are  sinking,' 
'  Lord,  if  he  sleep  he  shall  do  well,'  '  My  Jesus,  I  love  thee.' " 
This  was  done,  to  his  apparent  relief. 

The  next  morning  it  was  clear  that  he  was  worse.  The 
long  period  of  sleeplessness  was  fast  wearing  him  out.  To- 
ward evening  the  doctor,  coming  in,  said  in  a  cheery  voice,  to 
rouse  him  from  his  lethargy,  "  Dr.  Gordon,  have  you  a  good 
word  for  us  to-night?"  With  a  clear,  full  voice  he  answered, 
"Victory!"  It  was  as  if,  after  the  typhoon-like  sickness,  he 
had  passed  the  last  range  of  breakers  and  had  been  given  a 
glimpse  of  the  Eternal  City  gleaming  beyond. 


TILL    THE  DAY  DAWN  37 1 

This  was  his  last  audible  utterance.  Between  nine  and  ten 
in  the  eveniag  the  nurse  motioned  to  his  wife  that  she  was 
wanted.  As  she  bent  over  him  he  whispered,  "  Maria,  pray." 
She  led  in  prayer;  he  scarce  followed  sentence  by  sentence, 
trying  at  the  close  to  utter  a  petition  for  himself;  but  his 
strength  was  not  sufficient  for  articulation. 

Five  minutes  after  midnight  on  the  morning  of  February  2d 
he  fell  asleep  in  Jesus.  In  a  few  minutes  the  solemn  tolling 
from  the  belfry  of  the  church  apprised  his  people  that  their 
pastor  and  friend  was  gone.  The  stars  in  the  dark  sky  looked 
down  calmly  as  ever.  The  crunching  of  the  snow  outside 
under  an  occasionally  passing  team  alone  broke  the  silence  as 
the  chamber  door  was  closed  upon  the  still  form,  tenantless 
now  "  until  the  morning  breaks  and  the  shadows  flee  away." 

That  night  the  wires  carried  to  thousands  the  message  of 
bereavement.  With  the  morning  the  returning  replies  of  a 
sorrowing  sympathy  began  to  pour  in.  First  came  scores  of 
yellow  envelops — brief,  heart-wrung  exclamations  from  those 
who  could  not  wait  to  write ;  then  a  flood  of  letters  from  near 
points,  widening  out  as  the  days  passed,  until  every  State  and 
Territory  was  represented.  With  the  mails  from  beyond  the 
sea  came  the  same  words— from  England,  from  France,  from 
Cape  Colony,  from  Brazil,  from  the  West  Indies,  from  India, 
from  Japan.  "All  the  religious  papers  from  Sweden,"  wrote 
a  Kansas  Swede,  "  have  dwelt  upon  our  loss."  Finally,  weeks 
after,  messages  of  sorrow  arrived  from  the  lonely  mission 
stations  far  up  the  river-ways  of  Africa  and  from  the  extreme 
western  provinces  of  China.  "  We  have  been  holding  a  me- 
morial service  here  in  Yachow  [Szechuen]  for  him,"  wrote  a 
missionary.     It  was  only  one  among  many  such. 

What  a  revelation  of  love  this  vast  pile  of  letters  constituted! 
What  utterances  of  grief,  what  acknowledgments  of  indebted- 
ness, it  contained!  "Oh,  how  we  loved  him!"  "How  I 
honored  and  revered  him!"     "He  was  Great-heart  to  us 


372  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

poor  pilgrims."  "The  loss  is  paralyzing."  "We  are  dazed 
with  sorrow."  "  O  my  friend!  "  *  "  The  loss  is  almost  irrep- 
arable." "  We  are  heartbroken."  "  The  loss  to  the  world  is 
past  telling."  "  My  dear  benefactor  is  gone."  "  '  Help,  Lord  ; 
for  the  godly  man  ceaseth  ;  for  the  faithful  fail  from  among  the 
children  of  men.' "  "  I  loved  him  as  I  did  no  other  man." 
"  His  influence  for  good  has  been  incalculable."  "  Dear, 
dear  Gordon!  I  loved  him  dearly,  and  always  have.  Faith 
is  hardly  equal  to  this.  How  can  he  be  spared!"  "I  never 
knew  one  more  transparent  and  more  lovable."  "  He  was  the 
whole  world's  good  friend."  "  He  was  a  living  conscience  to 
the  city."  "  There  are  many  of  us  who  owe  to  him  more  than 
we  can  ever  tell."  "  All  that  was  truly  dear  to  me  in  Boston 
seems  gone.  We  sorrow  most  of  all  that  we  shall  see  his  dear 
face  no  more."  "  I  never  met  him  but  I  learned  to  love  him." 
"  I  bless  God  that  I  ever  knew  him."  "  I  thank  God  for  that 
perfect  life,  that  simple,  childlike,  pure  spirit  which  has  strength- 
ened me  in  the  most  holy  faith."  "  I  have  never  seen  him,  but 
for  twenty  years  I  have  been  indebted  to  him  as  to  no  other 
minister."  "O  man  greatly  beloved!"  "'O  my  father,  my 
father!  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof.'" 
"  Would  God  I  had  been  more  worthy  of  his  companionship. 
I  must  try  now  to  be  more  like  him."  "  I  am  almost  pros- 
trated, for  I  can  never  forget  his  kindness  to  us  in  affliction." 
"  No  other  departure  of  any  man  or  any  ten  men,  save  of  my 
own  sons,  could  have  stirred  me  so  to  the  depths."  "  I  can- 
not put  language  into  form  that  would  describe  the  stricken 
sense  under  which  we  suffer  here  at  the  news."  "  The  great- 
est and  truest  saint  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  know!"  "  I 
never  spoke  to  him  but  once  ;  yet  I  think  of  him  as  a  brother." 
"  Express  to  the  children  my  sense  of  thankfulness  for  a  share 
of  their  dear  father's  love,  of  grief  at  his  removal,  of  determi- 

*  A  single  exclamation  on  a  sheet  of  paper  sent  from  some  train  flying 
through  the  night  far  away  in  the  West. 


TILL    THE   DAY  DAWN  373 

nation  to  follow  with  them  in  his  footsteps."  "  I  can  scarcely 
realize  that  I  shall  not  look  again  on  that  noble  countenance." 
"  God  help  us!  No  human  being  can!  What  are  we  to  do 
without  him?  "  "  How  we  loved  him!  He  was  the  Apostle 
John  of  our  day."  "  He  loved  the  drunkard  as  well  as  the 
moralist."  *  "  So  great  is  the  loss  that  I  have  been  wishing 
I  could  have  accepted  the  '  enemy's '  summons  if  thereby  he 
could  have  been  spared."  "  We  shall  not  be  able  to  get  along 
through  life  without  him."  t  "  His  genius,  his  simplicity,  his 
modesty,  his  bravery,  his  evangelical  fervor,  his  firm  adhesion 
to  the  gospel  of  Christ,  his  unity  of  life,  have  given  him  an  in- 
comparable place  in  our  hearts."  "  He  was  the  rarest  and 
most  Christ-like  spirit  I  have  ever  known."  "  I  went  to  bed 
last  night  and  remained  awake  a  long  time  weeping  before 
the  Lord.  I  truly  loved  him."  "  When  I  received  word  of 
his  death  I  immediately  left  my  office,  went  to  my  home ;  then 
had  prayers  with  my  wife.  After  which  we  spake  of  the  loss 
to  God's  Zion.     I  am  homesick  for  heaven." 

The  funeral  occurred  on  the  following  Tuesday.  All 
through  that  winter  morning  a  great  concourse  passed  tear- 
fully and  slowly  by  the  casket.  Men  were  sobbing  convulsively 
like  children.  Strange  faces  in  great  numbers  of  the  poor  and 
of  the  meanly  clad  there  were — a  significant  reminder  of  much 
that  the  right  hand  had  hid  from  the  left.  A  group  of  Chinese 
members  were  observed  weeping  in  a  comer  of  the  vestry. 
One  of  them,  a  poor  laundryman,  when  told  that  flowers  were 
refused,  laid  three  dollars  upon  the  coffin  for  the  preaching  of 
the  gospel  of  the  resurrection  among  his  countrymen.  "  Dr. 
Gordon  would  have  wished  it,"  he  said.  The  suggestion  was 
taken  up,  and  a  large  sum  was  immediately  subscribed  by  the 
young  people  of  the  church  for  a  memorial  missionary  fund. 

*  From  a  reformed  man. 

t  From  a  misspelled  letter  evidently  from  some  humble  one  whom  he 
had  helped. 


374  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

At  one  o'clock  the  casket  was  brought  upstairs  and  placed 
in  the  spot  where  monthly  for  twenty-five  years  the  dead  pas- 
tor had  poured  wine  and  broken  bread  to  his  flock  in  the  com- 
munion feast.  The  church  was  filled  to  its  utmost  capacity 
and  hundreds  regretfully  turned  homeward  from  the  closed 
doors.  Outside  the  wind  cut  hke  a  sand-blast  and  the  snow 
wraiths  tore  circling  through  the  streets ;  for  it  was  the  coldest 
day  of  winter. 

A  deep  sense  of  awe  and  of  subdued  triumph  seemed  to 
have  taken  the  place  of  outpouring  grief.  The  crowding 
memories  of  his  hfe  were  to  the  multitudes,  as  his  living  pres- 
ence in  the  death-chamber  had  so  often  been,  "a  cup  of 
strength  in  the  great  agony."  The  towering  floods  of  anguish 
were  held  back  as  by  the  very  hand  of  Jehovah,  so  that  we 
passed  through  that  afternoon  dry-shod.  It  was  not  "  the  dark 
day  of  nothingness."  The  heavens  had  opened  and  a  vision 
of  victory  had  been  vouchsafed.  Never  was  faith  more  con- 
vinced ;  never  were  "  those  mighty  hopes  that  make  us  men  " 
more  potent.  On  that  day  all  in  the  vast  gathering  reahzed 
with  more  than  intuition  that  the  dead  had  reached  the  blessed 
goal,  that  Christ  had  reached  him  out  the  shining  hand. 

The  singing  was  pervaded  with  a  solemn  power.  Grief 
and  triumph  had  here  their  common  outlet,  flowing  commin- 
gled in  an  unhindered  tide.  Every  soul  in  the  house  seemed 
to  be  singing,  and  the  sound  was  as  the  noise  of  many  waters. 
What  a  vindication  of  congregational  music!  How  spectral 
the  singing  of  the  conventional  quartet  would  have  seemed 
after  those  mighty  billows  of  sound  thundering  along  with  the 
inspired  words  of  Samuel  Rutherford!* 

Four  of  the  dead  man's  comrades  spoke  for  him  that  day. 
Dr.  Henry  C.  Mabie  represented  the  missionary  interests  for 
which  he  toiled ;  President  Andrews,  of  Brown  University, 
recalled  the  old  days  and  the  alma  mater  he  had  served  in 

*  "  The  sands  of  time  are  sinking,"  etc. 


TILL    THE  DAY  DAWN  375 

later  years ;  Joseph  Cook,  his  unswerving  fidehty  to  Christian 
truth  and  his  unfaltering  championship  of  struggling  causes ; 
and  Dr.  Pierson  the  labors  at  Northfield  and  the  many  cam- 
paigns through  which  they  went  together. 
The  addresses  were  in  part  as  follows : 

"  It  has  been  deemed  fitting  that  one  of  the  representatives 
of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  associated  with 
Dr.  Gordon  in  a  far-reaching  form  of  foreign  mission  enter- 
prise, should  say  a  few  words  in  connection  with  this  service — 
that  he  should  speak  a  word  concerning  Dr.  Gordon's  relation 
to  missions.  If  I  were  to  express  it  in  one  word,  I  should  say 
that  Dr.  Gordon's  interest  in  missions  was  integral;  it  entered 
into  his  very  spiritual  personality ;  it  was  but  the  natural  breath- 
ing and  outcome  of  his  being ;  it  was  no  form  of  service  that 
was  put  on  as  a  garment,  no  perfunctory  performance,  no 
line  of  duty  taken  up  because  he  had  been  elected  to  fill  some 
official  position.  Missions  with  him,  as  with  the  God  who  in- 
stituted them  and  with  Jesus  Christ  his  Son,  who  by  his  atone- 
ment made  them  possible,  were  constitutional.  He  could  no 
more  think  of  missions  as  geographically  limiting  his  thoughts, 
his  heart,  his  life,  his  enterprise,  than  you  could  think  of  there 
being  limits  to  the  sympathies  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  He  was  naturalized  to  all  Christ's  work.  To  him  that 
work  was  a  circle,  not  an  arc.  It  was  globed.  Hence  he 
was  as  much  at  home  in  alien  cities  as  in  his  own  Boston,  at 
the  World's  Missionary  Conference  in  London  as  some  of  us 
saw  him — easily  king  of  missionaries  as  he  was  imperial  among 
pleaders  for  missions,  the  one  man  without  whom  no  single 
session  was  thought  complete  till  they  had  heard  his  voice. 
Hence  it  was  that  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  and  throughout 
Scotland  he  was  welcomed  everywhere,  and  fitted  into  the  re- 
lations and  voiced  the  missionary  interest  of  these  people  just 
as  naturally  as  if  he  were  addressing  his  own  prayer-meeting 


376  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

here  in  Clarendon  Street  Church.  So  their  testimony  was, 
'  He  fed  us  with  the  finest  of  the  wheat.'  He  enlarged  their 
horizon  in  respect  to  the  world  and  gave  them  a  relish  for  its 
conquest.  Hence  it  was  that  in  Paris,  with  the  McAll  Mis- 
sion workers,  he  was  not  only  welcomed,  but  eagerly  sought 
for,  cabled  for ;  they  must  have  him,  and  for  them  he  crossed 
the  seas  again  and  again.  Hence  it  was  that  in  our  own  land 
he  was  sought  on  all  platforms  where  missions  were  to  have  a 
peculiar  and  effective  advocacy.  Hence  it  was  that  the  stu- 
dent volunteer  movement,  the  great  conferences  at  Northfield 
and  Ocean  Grove  and  elsewhere,  regarded  his  presence  and 
his  addresses  as  indispensable.  Hence  his  favor  for  the  Sal- 
vation Army  movement,  which  he  commended  and  cheered 
when  almost  all  men  set  it  at  naught.  Hence  it  was  that  in 
the  stables  of  street-car  drivers,  on  the  wharves  along  the 
shore  in  Boston,  or  in  refuges  of  the  lost,  he  was  everywhere 
welcomed  as  the  supporter,  advocate,  and  brother,  vitally 
linked  with  all  these  organizations  of  any  and  every  name. 

"  But  who  shall  tell  what  our  beloved  brother  was  to  the 
American  Baptist  Missionary  Union — our  counselor,  our  in- 
spiration, our  pride ;  none  so  meek  as  he.  I  may  be  allowed 
to  say,  without  disparagement  to  any  one,  that  all  through  his 
official  relations  to  that  body,  through  so  many  weary  years 
in  our  committee-rooms  in  this  city,  he  often  surrendered  opin- 
ions of  his  own  respecting  ways  and  means  in  deference  to  his 
brethren,  whom  he  was  always  ready  to  think  of  as  more  to 
be  considered  than  himself.  He  was  always  ready  to  take  the 
field  for  us,  and  was  the  bulwark  of  that  organization.  How 
this  noble  church  has  stood  by  him  and  followed  him,  till  at 
length  they  only  wanted  to  know  his  thought  and  they  would 
anticipate  it !  There  was  with  him  no  pulling  of  people's  door- 
bells to  extract  from  them  unwilling  offerings ;  no  passing 
around  nervously,  hat  in  hand,  to  beg  for  Peter's  pence ;  but 
rather  a  quiet  exaltation  of  the  lofty  privilege  of  giving  and  a 


TILL    THE  DAY  DAWN  Z11 

reminder  of  the  blood  mortgage  on  all  men  to  redeem  the 
world.   .  .  . 

"  History  in  its  ongoings,  as  Dr.  Gordon  viewed  it,  was 
missionary  history.  He  was  not  a  man  sailing  over  a  track- 
less deep  without  chart  or  compass,  with  no  desired  haven  in 
view.  History  was  not  to  him  a  confused  mass  of  incidents, 
as  it  is  to  the  materiahstic  thinker  of  our  day— an  insoluble 
riddle,  a  hopeless  tangle.  The  history  of  the  world,  as  he 
viewed  it,  started  from  a  beginning,  and  went  on  through  the 
middle  to  the  end  in  an  orderly  way,  and  the  end  was  a  glori- 
ous and  divine  consummation.  The  one  last  word  that  es- 
caped his  lips  was  'Victory!'  He  believed  that  this  was  as- 
sured in  history.  His  faith  swept  the  entire  perspective,  and 
hence  it  was  that  he  saw  great  mountain-peaks  in  that  won- 
drous landscape  where  some  of  us,  perhaps,  see  only  hillocks, 
if  we  see  even  these.  His  view  of  history  was  simply  the  suc- 
cessive stages  of  the  plan  of  human  redemption,  with  its  glori- 
ous culmination. 

"  If  some  thought  at  times  that  his  view  of  proper  mission 
work  was  superficial  or  pessimistic,  I  bid  them  think  again. 
If  some  think  that  he  emphasized  unduly  what  he  regarded  as 
the  great  and  immediate  duty  of  the  church  in  this  present 
age,  viz.,  to  preach  the  gospel  'for  a  witness^  let  them  think 
how  long,  how  ardently,  how  profoundly  he  pondered  the 
words  of  the  Lord,  for  his  words  they  are :  '  This  gospel  of 
the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world  for  a  witness 
unto  all  nations,  and  then  shall  the  end  come.'  What  Dr. 
Gordon  meant  by  the  '  witnessing '  is  not  that  superficial  post- 
boy, flash-light  method  of  Christian  enterprise  which  some 
imagine.  What  it  is  let  his  own  tremendously  earnest  and 
concentrated  efforts,  which  burned  out  the  fires  of  this  life, 
testify.  He  meant  all  that  Jesus  Christ  meant  when  he  said, 
'  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the 
world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth.'     Christ's 


37^  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

personal  ministry,  from  the  manger  to  the  throne,  he  believed 
to  be  but  a  witness ;  the  beginnings  of  things,  not  the  consum- 
mation of  them ;  the  foundations  only  of  the  eternal  king- 
dom that  God  was  to  rear.  He  meant  all  that  the  Apostle 
Paul  meant  when  he  spoke  of  his  consummate  privilege  '  to 
testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.' " 

"  Dear  Friends  :  I  do  not  consider  it  profitable  that  I 
should  say  much  on  a  solemn  occasion  like  this,  for  I  stand 
here  in  an  official  relation.  Were  I  to  speak  personally,  de- 
tailing the  knowledge  I  had  of  this  good  man,  it  would  take 
more  time  than  I  have  any  right  to  occupy.  Dr.  Gordon  was 
a  graduate  of  Brown  University.  He  graduated  in  the  class 
of  i860,  and  he  was  a  light  in  that  class.  He  was  very  dearly 
beloved  by  his  classmates.  Quite  early  in  his  ministry  to 
this  congregation  he  was  chosen  to  be  a  member  of  the 
governing  board  of  Brown  University,  and  I  cannot  tell  you 
how  faithful  he  has  always  been  in  that  relation.  He  not  only 
attended  the  meetings  whenever  possible — and  the  occasions 
when  it  was  not  possible  were  very  few — but  he  entered 
warmly  into  all  matters  brought  before  the  board.  He  always 
showed  an  uncommon  grasp  of  the  college's  business  matters, 
keeping  them  in  mind  from  one  year's  session  to  another.  I 
felt  very  proud  of  Dr.  Gordon  on  this  account.  He  was 
mainly  engaged  in  spiritual  work,  but  he  was  never  so  lost  in 
it  that  he  was  not  able  to  take  up  any  necessary  temporal  de- 
tails. I  believe  that  the  men  most  immersed  in  business  also 
respected  him  on  account  of  this  quality.  Not  to  speak  fur- 
ther upon  this,  I  wish  to  mention  a  Hne  of  Dr.  Gordon's 
activity  of  which  very  few  even  in  this  church,  even  those  very 
intimate  with  him,  have  been  aware.  He  was  accustomed  to 
tear  himself  away  from  his  toils  here  and  run  down  to  Brown 
University  for  a  single  day  or  more  to  assist  in  our  services. 
Two  or  three  times  on  these  occasions  it  was  absolutely  indis- 


TILL    THE   DAY  DAIVN  379 

pensable  that  he  should  at  night  come  back  to  Boston  for  some 
duty.  He  would  then  fly  to  Providence  again  and  resume 
work.  It  is  not  every  man — not  even  every  good  or  every 
able  man— who  can  touch  the  hearts  of  students.  In  all  my 
acquaintance  I  have  never  met  many— never  more  than  two 
or  three— who  began  to  have  the  power  in  this  sort  of  work 
that  Dr.  Gordon  had.  He  never  came  to  us  without  bringing 
a  blessing,  a  large  blessing,  never  without  leaving  behind  him 
a  permanent  blessing.  Never  did  he  speak  a  word  in  our 
student  body  without  so  impressing  many  a  student  heart  that 
the  impress  of  that  lesson  must  abide  forever.  It  was  my 
privilege  during  such  visits  within  the  last  four  or  five  years  to 
become  acquainted  with  Dr.  Gordon  personally  as  I  was  never 
acquainted  with  him  before.  I  had  often  listened  to  his  preach- 
ing, sometimes  in  this  chiu-ch,  sometimes  elsewhere,  always 
with  great  delight ;  and  I  had  on  a  few  occasions  drawn  near 
him  to  seek  personal  counsel.  What  multitudes  could  say  the 
same!  Still,  till  the  times  to  which  I  refer  when  he  came  to 
our  college  to  address  the  students,  I  felt  that  I  had  not  much 
personal  acquaintance  with  him.  Till  then  I  never  knew  the 
immeasvu-able  depth  and  breadth  of  his  religious  life  ;  but  these 
visits  revealed  it.  After  the  meetings  were  over  and  before  he 
could  take  the  train — sometimes,  indeed,  before  the  meetings 
— he  would  come  to  my  house,  where  I  had  the  privilege  of 
conversing  with  him.  I  enjoyed  a  precious  opportunity  of 
this  kind  the  very  last  time  he  came  to  us,  in  November,  1894. 
He  preached  to  a  large  number  of  students,  and  personally 
prayed  with  some  ;  then  he  came  to  my  house  and  we  talked 
about  many,  many  things.  It  would  be  impossible,  even  if 
we  took  this  whole  afternoon,  to-night,  to-morrow,  and  all  the 
month,  to  go  over  all  that  you,  the  other  friends  of  Dr.  Gor- 
don, know  about  the  immensity  and  grandeur  of  his  religious 
Hfe.    .    .    . 

"  I  wish  to  lay  emphasis  also  upon  the  amazing  catholicity 


380  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

of  this  good  brother  in  thinking  of  those  who  differed  from 
him.  I  suppose  that  the  man  does  not  live — I  suppose  the 
man  has  never  Hved— who  ever  heard  from  Dr.  Gordon's  h"ps 
the  first  bitter  or  even  reproachful  word  about  any  who  did 
not  agree  with  him.  He  went  his  way,  he  saw  the  light,  he 
heard  the  call  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  road  before 
him.  He  followed,  and  he  followed  with  absolute  fearless- 
ness." 

"  If  I  were  at  this  moment  on  my  death-bed,  there  is  no 
preacher  of  my  acquaintance  with  whom  I  should  more  gladly 
consult,  were  he  alive,  than  that  one  who  has  been  snatched 
from  us  so  recently,  and  who  now  knows  what  light  is  while 
we  sit  in  the  shadow.  Were  I  a  student  beginning  a  course 
of  theological  study,  there  is  no  one  to  whom  I  should  look 
for  safer  advice  in  comparing  Scripture  with  Scripture  than  to 
that  servant  of  God  who  in  this  city  lived  a  biblical  life  and 
preached  an  unadulterated  gospel.  If  I  were  commencing  a 
career  of  advocacy  of  moral  or  social,  industrial  or  even  po- 
litical reforms,  I  do  not  know  where  I  could  find  one  who 
would  be  a  more  judicious  guide  than  he  would  have  been  who 
was  a  warrior  in  his  best  days  for  many  a  noble  reform,  and  who 
now  lies  dead  on  his  shield  on  the  field  of  battle.    .    .    . 

"  These  three  tests  of  a  public  career  are  the  severest  we  can 
apply:  Would  we  ask  this  man  to  give  us  advice  when  we 
take  our  leap  into  that  unseen  holy  region  into  which  all  men 
haste?  Would  we  follow  him  in  our  study  of  God's  Word? 
Would  we  take  him  as  an  adviser  in  conflict  with  the  evils  of 
our  day?  I  do  unreservedly  pray  God  that  the  mantle  of  this 
servant  of  his  may  fall  on  young  theological  students,  may  fall 
on  young  reformers,  may  fall  on  all  who  are  preaching  God's 
Word,  may  fall  on  all  who  knew  him  on  either  side  the  sea, 
may  fall  on  the  missions  which  he  befriended  to  the  very  ends 
of  the  earth.     Let  us  sorrow  only  for  ourselves.     All  the 


TILL    THE  DAY  DAWN  381 

mysteries  of  his  providence  God  himself  understands,  and  this 
ought  to  be  enough  for  our  peace.  There  are  no  broken 
columns  in  cathedrals  that  God  builds— no  unfinished  arches. 

"  It  is  as  a  reformer  that  some  of  us  look  to  Dr.  Gordon  as 
one  who  could  not  be  spared.  We  do  not  see  his  successor 
in  the  pulpit ;  at  least,  not  precisely  his  parallel.  It  would  be 
hard  to  find  a  man  who  had  such  a  grasp  upon  the  confidence 
of  the  Christians  of  the  United  States,  and  who  was  as  pro- 
nounced as  he  in  advocating  strong  doctrines  on  the  subject 
of  the  temperance  reform.  As  a  preacher  he  was  first,  midst, 
last,  biblical.  It  would  have  amazed  his  audiences  if  he  had 
often  quoted  the  secular  poets  or  illustrated  his  courses  of 
thought  by  anecdotes  of  adventure  of  a  secular  kind,  or  if  he 
had  been  in  any  way  sensational  in  the  bad  meaning  of  that 
word.  He  was  pungent.  He  was  spiritually  incisive.  He 
held  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  was  able  to  thrust  it  through 
and  through  the  fabric  of  error,  through  and  through  even 
hard  hearts.  But  if  he  quoted  at  all  in  his  discourses,  it  was 
usually  from  the  Puritan  divines;  it  was  from  the  deepest 
students  of  the  inner  life ;  it  was  from  the  biographies  of  those 
saints  of  the  modern  and  of  the  medieval  and  of  the  apostolic 
church  who  are  canonized  by  the  universal  consent  of  Chris- 
tendom. And  you  feel  that  in  their  presence  he  was  in  com- 
pany fit  for  his  own  soul,  and  that  his  own  was  fit  for  this 
company.  The  astonishing  thing  to  me  in  Dr.  Gordon,  when 
I  heard  him,  was  that  he  seemed  to  be  one  with  Savonarola 
and  with  Wesley  and  with  the  Friends,  who  have  spoken  most 
effectively  from  the  impulse  of  the  inner  voice.  He  was  one 
with  St.  John  and  with  St.  Paul  in  his  doctrine,  and  it  seemed 
natural  for  him  to  compare  Scripture  with  Scripture  and  bring 
out  meanings  not  often  emphasized. 

"  He  made  a  geodetic  survey  of  his  life  along  the  loftiest 
summits,  and  found  the  trend  of  those  heights  pointing 
definitely  in  certain  directions.     This,  as  I  suppose,  is  one  of 


382  A  DON/RAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

the  most  safe  and  searching  tests  any  man  can  apply  to  his 
own  career:  In  his  highest  moments,  what  is  said  to  him? 
What  do  those  highest  moments  mean  if,  when  placed  in  hne, 
they  all  trend  in  a  given  direction?  Dr.  Gordon  believed, 
not  that  he  had  special  illuminations,  but  that  he  was  in  the 
way  of  duty ;  for  year  after  year  his  efforts  along  the  lines  of 
an  apostolic  ministry  were  prospered ;  year  after  year  his  de- 
votions, his  study  of  the  Bible,  his  watchful  analysis  of  current 
providences,  gave  him  more  and  more  confidence  that  God 
was  encoiuraging  him.    .    .    . 

"  Read  Dr.  Gordon  in  full.  Read  all  his  many  books ; 
several  of  them  are  religious  classics.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact 
that,  in  this  city  of  Boston,  three  books  have  been  written  that 
are  worthy  to  he  on  the  table  by  any  dying  couch,  side  by 
side  with  Thomas  k  Kempis's  '  Imitatio  Christi '  and  Jeremy 
Taylor's  '  Holy  Living  and  Dying.'  These  three  were  among 
our  brother's  volumes,  and  entitled  '  In  Christ,' '  The  Twofold 
Life,'  and  '  The  Ministry  of  the  Spirit,'  the  last  coming  from 
the  press  within  a  few  hours  of  our  bereavement.  They  are 
fit  to  be  placed  among  the  religious  classics  approved  after 
long  experience  by  Christians  of  every  name.  I  believe  they 
will  live  as  such,  and  in  this  opinion  I  am  not  singular.  It  is 
held  by  men  of  far  better  judgment  than  myself,  who  are, 
many  of  them,  here  to-day.  I  believe  it  will  be  indorsed  by 
the  churches  as  the  years  roll  on.  Mr.  Spurgeon  and  a  dozen 
other  critics  I  could  mention  have  spoken  of  Dr.  Gordon's 
books  in  terms  which  one  might  think  fulsome,  if  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  their  value  had  not  shown  the  merits  of  those 
writings  so  powerful,  so  quiet,  so  filled  with  the  Spirit.  I  read 
Dr.  Gordon's  volumes  from  end  to  end.  The  Scotch  said, 
when  Dr.  Pierson  and  Dr.  Gordon  made  a  tour  as  lecturers 
after  the  great  World's  Missionary  Convention  in  London  in 
1888,  '  Dr.  Pierson  inspired  us;  Dr.  Gordon  fed  us.'  Several 
times  the  cover  had  been  worn  off  and  replaced  on  his  copy 


TILL    THE  DAY  DAWN  383 

of  the  Greek  New  Testament.  Dr.  Gordon  was  the  superior 
of  most  of  us  in  spiritual  insight.  He  was  born  with  wonder- 
ful natural  capacities  in  the  direction  of  religious  thought,  emo- 
tion, and  intuition.  He  was  a  thinker,  he  was  a  philosopher, 
and  he  was  a  mystic  also.  He  had  a  great  head,  a  great  heart. 
He  was  able  to  get  a  bucket  down  very  deeply  into  the  wells 
of  spiritual  truth.  I  advise  you  to  notice  what  crystalline 
waters  he  brought  up,  and  to  drink  often  from  those  fountains. 
"Two  facts  concerning  Judson  Gordon  I  am  very  sure  his- 
tory will  remember :  first,  that  he  was  polygonal ;  next,  that 
every  side  of  him  was  biblical.  He  was  distinguished  as 
preacher,  pastor,  evangelist,  reformer,  editor.  He  was  the 
scholar's  assistant  toward  the  narrow  and  strait  way.  One 
of  the  most  difficult  things  he  ever  did,  I  think,  was  to  bring 
the  holy  awe  of  self-consecration  to  the  somewhat  thoughtless, 
always  rather  impetuous,  circles  of  students  in  many  colleges. 
He  was  a  traveler;  he  faced  strange  audiences  abroad,  and 
fed  them ;  he  was  in  his  family  a  priest.  He  was  known  here 
in  the  attics  and  cellars  as  one  who  could  imitate  the  Saviour 
in  going  from  house  to  house  doing  good.  He  built  this 
church  on  the  pattern  shown  to  him  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
Scripture  and  life.  These  are  only  a  few  sides  of  his  work ; 
but  every  side  was  scriptural.  I  revere  exceedingly  this  com- 
prehensiveness in  his  religious  outlook  and  culture  and  activity. 
He  was  not  one  of  those  who  tried  to  master  so  many  things 
as  not  to  be  an  authority  on  any  one  of  them.  In  all  these 
departments  of  his  activity  he  was  looked  upon  by  many  of 
us,  I  am  sure,  as  a  leader." 

"  My  brother,  against  the  day  of  thy  burying  have  I  kept 
this  alabaster  flask,  and  I  come  now  beforehand  to  anoint  thy 
body  for  the  burial. 

"  There  are  some  things  that  ought  not  to  be  spoken  of  a 
yet  living  man ;  but  our  lips  may  perhaps  be  unsealed  when 


384  ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 

God  has  taken  him.  I  dare  not  speak— and  it  would  not  be 
proper  nor  delicate — of  what  this  loss  is  to  me  personally.  He 
was  a  great  man.  I  never  knew  a  man  who  lived  on  the 
bosom  of  God  as  he  did.  I  never  expect  to  see  his  like ;  I 
never  knew  his  like ;  he  has  no  successor.  When  God  made 
him,  he  broke  the  mould.  As  I  look  upon  this  life  which  I 
have  studied  intensely  for  years  and  from  the  inner  circle  of 
friendship,  there  seems  to  be  in  it  a  strangely  rounded  symme- 
try. He  was  so  heavenly  in  character.  Did  you  ever  see 
such  a  countenance  as  his  was?  When  I  sat  here  on  the 
platform  at  his  late  anniversary,  and  looked  at  him,  I  went 
away  from  the  place  with  just  one  verse  of  Scripture  promi- 
nent in  my  mind,  which  has  remained  so  ever  since :  '  And 
all  that  sat  in  the  council,  looking  steadfastly  on  him,  saw  his 
face  as  it  had  been  the  face  of  an  angel.'  He  was  a  ripe  fruit, 
and  the  Husbandman  simply  bent  down  and  plucked  it  at  its 
ripeness ;  he  wanted  a  closer  taste  of  it  at  his  own  banquet 
board.  You  could  not  expect  to  keep  him  longer,  for  the  light 
on  his  brow  was  the  hght  of  anticipated  transfiguration.  But 
then  his  lifework,  like  his  character,  was  singularly  complete. 
Just  look  at  the  twenty-five  years  of  work  in  this  church! 
Think  of  the  maminess  and  the  boldness  of  his  testimony  to 
the  whole  rounded  gospel.  Look  at  the  way  in  which  he  ad- 
ministered this  church,  which  by  the  grace  of  God  he  led  by 
a  gradual  process  into  such  illumination  as  to  the  mind  of  God 
and  such  elimination  of  worldly  elements  that  it  was  a  fitting 
place  for  the  Holy  Ghost  to  preside ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  did 
preside  here  as  I  venture  to  say  he  presides  in,  perhaps,  no 
other  one  church  in  the  United  States.  That  church  is  itself 
a  living  epistle.    .    .    . 

"  There  is  something  beautiful  to  me  in  God's  taking  him 
away  right  in  his  prime,  in  the  fullness  of  his  beauty ;  for  we 
remember  men  as  they  make  their  last  impress  upon  us.  We 
shall  always  remember  Adoniram  Judson  Gordon  as  the  full- 


TILL    THE  DAY  DAWN  3^5 

grown  man  in  his  prime  of  intellect,  in  his  prime  of  Christian 
achievement,  in  the  midst  of  the  glory  of  the  work  that  has 
grown  to  this  point  and  now  never  could  decline  under  his 
hand,  for  his  hand  is  no  more  upon  it.  Is  not  that  better  than 
for  him  to  have  grown  old,  to  have  decayed  in  intellectual 
power,  to  have  declined  in  social  influence,  to  have  dimmed 
the  majesty  of  his  imperial  scepter? 

"  He  will  be  remembered  as  the  full-statured  man,  whose 
power  was  full-orbed  and  whose  sunset  was  without  a  cloud. 
He  is  forever  beyond  the  possibility  of  marring  his  own  life- 
work  even  by  imprudence  or  incaution,  and  no  one  else  can 
impair  its  symmetry.  When  his  character  and  career  reached 
their  nearest  approximation  to  the  ideal,  God  suddenly  crys- 
talhzed  the  vision  into  permanence,  and  so  it  will  forever  stand 
for  men  to  contemplate  and  imitate." 

On  a  warm  day  in  the  following  spring,  when  the  frost  had 
left  the  ground  and  the  trees  stood  clothed  in  Hving  green, 
the  casket  was  taken  from  the  vault  and  laid  in  its  final  rest- 
ing-place in  Forest  Hill  Cemetery.  It  had  been  the  first  im- 
pulse of  the  dead  man's  friends  to  put  him  in  the  uplands  of 
his  old  home,  where  his  grave  should  face  the  solemn  arc  of 
snow-tipped  mountains  which  circle  half  the  horizon.  "A 
man's  birthplace  may  well  be  his  burial-place,"  said  Joseph 
Cook,  when  he  heard  of  it,  "  but  I  think  his  battle-field  may 
better  be.  For  one,  I  wish  we  might  have  the  privilege  of 
often  standing  at  the  tomb  of  this  warrior.  I  could  have 
wished  that  he  might  have  remained  with  us  here  at  the  edge 
of  the  great  deep." 

The  suggestion  was  pressed  by  others.  It  was  recalled  how 
eagerly  Gordon  himself  had  sought  out  the  graves  of  Eliot, 
of  Brainerd,  of  Edwards,  and  how  much  inspiration  their 
simple  headstones  had  been  to  him.  In  the  hope,  therefore, 
that  in  days  to  come  his  memory  might  quicken  those  who 


386 


ADONIRAM  JUDSON  GORDON 


should  stand  above  his  grave,  he  was  buried  hard  by  the 
city  vi'here  his  hfework  was  wrought  out.  Over  him  was 
placed  a  massive  boulder  with  this  inscription: 

PASTOR    A.  J.  GORDON 

I836-I895 

"until  he  come" 

Not  to  him  had  it  been  given  to  be  "caught  up  to  meet 
the  Lord  in  the  air,"  as  he  had  hoped  and  prayed.  Rather 
will  it  be  his  to  return  with  the  Lord  and  with  those  tarrying 
within  the  veil,  when  the  trump  of  the  archangel  shall  en- 
swathe  the  whole  earth.  To  this  return,  to  "  the  glorious  ap- 
pearing of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,''  his 
grave  alone  among  the  thousands  in  the  great  cemetery  bears 
written  and  explicit  testimony. 


Date  Due 

Mr  r 

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